Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

.... so I started my Chocolate Chip Cookie Project a few weeks ago, and so far it's been very fun and delicious!  I'm so sorry that it's taken me so long to start posting about the project... I got busy with Halloween, and then the crazy October snowstorm that knocked out our internet for almost a week.... not that I'm complaining though and I got off lucky compared to many people.  Somehow we never lost power, even though 88 percent of our town did, and even now, a week later, over 200,000 people in Connecticut are without power.  A tree did fall on the building I live in a couple of apartments over, but somehow it didn't actually do any damage to the building, other than break a screen door!  Again, I consider myself incredibly lucky!

.... and back to the cookies :)

The first recipe I tried was from Baking Illustrated.  This is a cookbook I don't yet own, but has been on my wishlist for a while.  These cookies were big, and chewy, and very delicious, although out of the four recipes I've tried so far, they haven't received any votes for the best... They are great though, and they are a fairly straightforward recipe, except for the part where you actually shape the balls of dough... You actually have to make a ball of dough, pull it apart into two halves with your fingers, turn the jagged parts of each side up, and then put the ball of dough back together, leaving the jagged sides facing up... it's a weird step that I haven't seen in any other recipe so far, but it gives the top of the cookie that uneven crackly look that you see in bakeries.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Baking Illustrated, via Brown-Eyed Baker  

Makes about 18 large cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups plue 2 tbsp (10 5/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup packed (7 ounces) light or dark brown sugar (I used dark brown)

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1- 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and place oven rack in middle setting.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, or stand mixer, mix together the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.  Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add the flour mixture, and beat on low until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips to taste.

4. Roll a scant 1/4 cup of dough into a ball.  Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves.  Rotate the halves 90 degrees, and with the jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough's uneven surface.  Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, jagged surface up, 2 1/2 inches apart from each other.

5. Bake 15-18 minutes until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden, but the centers are still soft and puffy.  Cool the cookies on the sheets.  

Notes:

• Like I mentioned, the shaping step in unusual, and I am interested in seeing what happens if you don't perform that step... I know it would alter them visually, but would it affect the texture?  
• The only alteration I made to this recipe was to use bittersweet chocolate chips.... I used Ghirardelli 60 % chips, which I love.  I got comments ranging from not enough chocolate chips, to too many chips, to the perfect amount, to a coworker wanting normal chocolate chips (the semisweet ones)... so I think that's all personal preference.
• Delicious, but these are so far not the favorite among my tasters.... I will be making more batches though as there are some who have requested to be taste-testers yet haven't had the chance to try any of the batches!