Chocolate Chip Cookies

It seems that everyone has their long standing favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. The one they pull out whenever they feel the urge. Everyone except me. I'm too fickle. I don't have a favorite. Yet. So many bakers and bloggers claim that they have "the" best recipe. I, on the other hand, want it noted that I have never made such a claim. Not once. I'm happy to try them all out though, I'll call it my research. That will make me feel important. 
Today I wanted to bake cookies to take to our very first play/lunch date of the summer. But with so many recipes out there, I had a hard time deciding which one to try. I settled on Alton Brown's chocolate chip cookie, I found it on the Joy the Baker blog. Can I just say that I love that blog?! She makes me giggle and I'm not a giggler. Ask my sister. Anyway, Joy says it's her favorite recipe so I decided it was going to be the one. But before I get into the cookie recipe, I want to show you want I found lurking in my living room this morning.

That was not okay. This spider looks mean. It was on my vaulted ceiling. I'm five foot 3. I can't zoom on my camera and refused to get close so you do the math. All I know is that this was one big mother of a spider. And I hate spiders. They make me squeamish. So I did what any rational thirty something mother of two would do... I ran and got my husband who was just about to leave for work. He used a paper towel and grabbed the offending spider. Then he faked me out and pretended he was going to throw the paper towel at me with the spider inside. Also not okay. I bolted. I'll deal with him later.
Back to the cookies. This recipe is somewhat unconventional in that it uses melted butter and bread flour. Intriguing. It also calls for mostly brown sugar, which I like. A lot. 

You add your sugars to the melted butter in the bowl of your stand mixer and blend. Then you add an egg, an egg yolk, milk and vanilla. It looks like soup. Yummy butter and brown sugar soup.

Then you slowly add your dry ingredients, your chocolate chips and then CHILL the batter. I think this step is very important since the butter is melted. It was a very soft gooey batter and after chilling for about 45 minutes, it was ready to. The recipe says to bake only 6 at a time, I was able to fit 9. It also says to bake for 14 minutes and I pulled mine out at 10. Clearly, my cookies were smaller than what is provided for in the recipe.

The verdict? These cookies are amazing. I loved them. I ate a lot of them. They were crispy on the edges, soft and tender in the middle, and they had a rich butterscotch flavor. Very nice. No complaints. Are they the best CCC ever? I have no idea! I've only just begun my 'research'. But I can say this recipe is a keeper. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Source: Alton Brown via Joy the Baker blog)

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

2 1/4 cup bread flour

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 Tbsp. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla 

2 cups chocolate chips

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

Pour melted butter and sugars into the bowl of a stand mixer and cream on medium speed. Add egg, yolk, milk and vanilla. Mix till combined. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill the dough.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper. Scoop dough, 6 cookies per sheet, (or make smaller like I did) and bake for approximately 14 minutes or until golden brown. (Rotate your baking sheet after 5 minutes to ensure even browning.) Cool. Eat.