My Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

I promised last week that I’d post about my “perfect” chocolate chip cookie. I’ve tweaked it a bit since the last time I made it, and I suspect it may continue to get adjusted as life goes on, but I’m pretty happy with the basic recipe, so here it is.

What, that’s not helpful? 😦 You want more details? So demanding! *sigh*

Ok. Start by browning 142 g/5 oz/10 tbsp of the butter. What does that mean? Head here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkV2pRjbWkk His accent’s way cooler than mine. Also, he is saying “nutty flavour,” not “nerdy flavour,” though I can’t say there’s anything wrong with nerdy flavour, either. 😀 Don’t worry about ending up with some or all of the browned milk solids in your cookies. They’re yummy.

Add the browned butter to a bowl containing the other 4 tbsp/2 oz/57 g of butter, along with 1/2 cup/100 g/3.6 oz of white sugar, and 5.3 oz/150 g/3/4 cup of brown sugar. Whisk that together until the hot browned butter melts the still-solid butter. By then it should be cool enough that it isn’t going to cook your eggs.  Add one egg yolk and one whole egg. Whisk for 30 seconds. Then let it sit for 3 minutes. At this point, add the 2 tsp vanilla that you forgot, along with the 1 tsp of salt. Or, you know, do that before you add the egg. *shrug*

Whisk for another 30 seconds.  Then let it sit for 3 minutes. This is enough time to go mix 250 g/8 1/4 oz/2 cups of whole wheat flour with 1/2 tsp baking soda. Oh! I forgot my two secret ingredients. The first is that I use freshly ground whole wheat flour. The second is 1 tsp of cinnamon. I credit this inspiration to Doug, who tipped me off to this element of Wookiee Cookies. Yes, that Wookiee. From the Star Wars Cookbook.

Whisk for another 30 seconds. At this point, it looks totally different from the clumpy separated sugar goo at the bottom of a bowl with an oil-slick on top look that it had when you first started whisking. It’s almost fluffy. And absolutely delicious. The browned butter really adds something.

Fold in the flour, and the chocolate chips. Then stash it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake.

This time around, I made up the dough on Sunday afternoon, then baked Monday night. It made exactly 3 dozen cookies. Well, we’ll call it exact. 3 dozen make it past the cooling stage? 2 dozen of these were one of my contributions to a baking contest at work, but I really didn’t enter them for the contest. If they won, I was going to tell the judges to pick something else. My ‘real’ entry was a strawberry rhubarb sour cream pie, which I made on Tuesday night.

Since I organized the baking contest, I was in the cafeteria plating up the various categories for the judges, while they were sampling the first round of treats. I was busy slicing up some cake or cheesecake or something, when I hear Doug say, “Whole wheat cookies? Who brings those to a baking contest? That’s like hiding broccoli in something yummy.” As one of at least a couple of people who have, in the past,* given him a hard time about not being a particularly adventuresome eater, I said, “Just try them!”

Doug: “Oh, fine!” *grumble* “Oh, this is really good! What’s in this?”

Me (and Carrie): “Cinnamon.”

Doug: “No, there’s something else.” *waving half a cookie* “Kristina, come taste this!”

Me, laughing: “I made it!”

Doug: “I thought you made the pie?!”

Let’s just say I was amused. 🙂

To summarize:

Brown: 

142 g/5 oz/10 tbsp butter

Whisk browned butter into:

1/2 cup/100 g/3.6 oz white sugar

5.3 oz/150 g/3/4 cup brown sugar

4 tbsp/2 oz/57 g of butter

Add:

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

Whisk in:

1 large egg + 1 yolk

(whisk for 30 seconds, let stand for 3 minutes) x 3

Mix:

250 g/8 1/4 oz/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Stir flour mixture into wet mixture, then stir in 150 g of chocolate chips.

Chill the dough for at least 1/2 an hour, then bake for 10ish minutes in a pre-heated 375 degree Fahrenheit oven. You’ll have to experiment with the baking time, and maybe even the temperature. Everyone’s tastes are different when it comes to how “done” they want their chocolate chip cookies.

As far as I’m concerned, these have the perfect combination of sweetness, nuttiness, substance, chewiness, crispiness, and you can even pretend that they’re good for you. Even if they are hiding the baking world’s equivalent of broccoli.

*I was at the table when he got tired of a co-worker’s (friendly) mocking and tried sushi for the first time (in the Opryland Resort in Nashville, of all places) and discovered that, just like my husband, it’s cooked fishy fish that he doesn’t like, not super fresh fish. Now we get to do the occasional sushi double dates, since Megan likes sushi, too! 🙂