Thursday, November 13, 2008

No Exaggeration here! Chocolate chip cookies...


These were seriously the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had (no offense to those of you who have made me chocolate chip cookies before!) The funny part is that I don't even really love chocolate chip cookies. I am constantly making them trying to find a recipe that doesn't look like a pancake when I bake them. These were big, chewy, and perfectly done. DING DING DING! Here they are!


We made 6 batches/ 135-ish cookies in one of my classes and refrigerated the dough overnight. This morning, we baked them in our awesome industrial ovens (completely irrelevant, yes, but I love them!) and sold them for .50 a piece! The kids made 50 bucks! We are doing it again next week and the week after-- this is their entrepreneurship unit, so they are being little entreprenuers and making and selling cookies!


I got the recipe from the blog A Taste of Life.
(Source: Baking Illustrated, page 434)
Makes about 18 very large cookies.
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (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
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
1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.
4. Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the 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 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 formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.
5. Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a side metal spatula.
Oh and P.S.-- I realize the step 4 rotating dough, etc. sounds ridiculous. We actually did it and we are glad we did. Not really sure why, to be honest! The kids asked me why we were doing it, and I said "just trust me-- do it!", which apparently is not a sufficient answer for teenagers. I told them it was because then the tops had more texture and then it was like two little cookies baking pressed next to each other and they might bake differently this way.
Anybody know the actual answer to that question?!? THANKS!

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