This is the best chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe Rachel could find, (and believe me, she looked)! She gives the credit to Alton Brown, who taught her the secrets of the “perfect cookie.” Since the Bayles’s prefer having these hot with ice cream, Rachel usually only bakes as many cookies as they will use, and saves the remaining dough in the fridge for later.
½ C unsalted butter
½ C margarine
1¼ C brown sugar
¼ C white sugar
1¼ C BREAD flour (1½ C for higher altitude)
1 tsp KOSHER salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg + 1 yolk
2 Tbsp milk
½ Tbsp GOOD Vanilla*
2 C chocolate chips*
*Rachel recommends Blue Cattle Truck vanilla and Ghiradelli chocolate chips (a combination of their semi-sweet, milk, and/or 60% bittersweet cocoa chips).
Melt butter and margarine in a small pot over low heat. Meanwhile, prepare all remaining ingredients as follows: In a large bowl, mix brown and white sugars. In a smaller bowl, sift flour, salt and baking soda. In a small bowl or liquid measure cup, combine eggs, milk and vanilla.
When butter is melted, add to sugars and use an electric hand beater to combine well. Slowly add egg mix, then flour mix while continuing to beat. Mix until smooth. Stir in chips of your choice. Chill dough at least 15 minutes. If dough has chilled for more than an hour, it’s best to bake smaller cookies or flatten the big ones or they will be too doughy in the middle.
Preheat the oven to 350°F while dough finishes chilling. The dough should hold its form if it has chilled long enough. Drop cookies on parchment lined cookie sheets: a little less than ¼ cup if you’re going to serve with ice cream, or smaller if just for eating alone. Bake for 6 minutes, rotate the pan and bake another 5 and check for doneness. The edges should just barely start to brown. When they do, remove pan and slide the whole piece of parchment off onto the counter to prevent over burning the bottoms.
Cool slightly before serving with ice cream. Cool any uneaten cookies and keep them in an air tight container.
Yields: about 24 cookies
Time to make: 45 min
Source: Good Eats “The Chewey” (submitted by Rachel Hoffman Bayles)