Chocolate chip perfection

I've been making chocolate chip cookies for the last two weeks. Seriously, I think I've made about five batches, each a different recipe; all in search of the perfect, chewy cookie. After two crispy batches, I turned to the only man I knew to turn to - Alton Brown. :) In his episode, Three Chips for Sister Marsha, AB discusses the different types of cookies: thin (crispy), puffy and what I wanted - the CHEWY!

Alton's recipe was really good and definitely pointed me in the right direction. But it still wasn't exactly what I wanted. So I turned to my Blogger and Facebook friends (special thanks to Frieda!). I got several comments and a few recipes. One of them (thanks, Morgan!) looked really close to what I wanted - except that it used less chocolate chips. So I adjusted that part. :) I took what I'd heard and learned, combined some recipes, and came up with this amazing cookie.


INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla
2 - 2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 (12 oz) bag chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS

Cream butter, shortening, and both sugars.

Add egg and vanilla. Beat till combined.

Sift flour, soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture in thirds, beating till combined after each addition.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop onto baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 7-9 minutes, until edges barely begin to brown. Let sit on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.


A few notes...this dough may seem a little dry. But trust me, it makes yummy cookies! Start with 2 cups of flour and add a little bit more at a time until the dough holds together well. Bread flour contains more gluten. Gluten = chewiness. If all you have is all-purpose flour, that's ok. The cookies will still be good. If you happen to have all purpose flour and some wheat gluten...add a couple of teaspoons of gluten to the flour mix.