Recipe for the Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dear M.,

Children are fair and impartial judges. What they like they like, what they hate they hate. This is most evident in food. It is my daughter´s review that I fear the most. This is why I dare to say that the recipe for these chocolate chip cookies is fantastic.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to see some friends who organized a playdate for the children. I came back home late and had very little time to prepare any dessert that would require long hours of work or laborious techniques, with little promise of success. I was about to go to the supermarket when I got a glimpse of the 25-years´edition of the Cook's Illustrated Magazine.I took a look and bingo! I found something that was not time-consuming at all.

In mere 15 minutes, I mixed the flour, baking powder and baking soda. I browned the butter over a slow fire and then mixed it with fresh butter, brown and white sugar, vanilla, salt, one egg and one yolk. I was tempted to skip the browning of the butter, but as I read the recipe more carefully, I grasped that this was the secret of an aromatic, crisp-chewy cookie. With a hand blender, I worked the mixture three times, with intervals of 2 minutes of resting between them (to allow the sugar to melt). I added the flour, chocolate chips and mixed them well with the help of a rubber spatula. Finally, on a baking paper-lined tray I placed the dough balls (about three tablespoons of dough) at several centimeters distance from each other and baked for 10 minutes.

As we dressed up with the various layers of clothes that one needs in winter, the cookies were cooling on the rack. A sweet scent was filtering through under the door to fill every millimeter of the corridor. My daughter and Ayi could not resist the temptation and three cookies disappeared in a matter of seconds. The remaining 12 arrived safely at my friends' house, only to disappear in no time among the little fingers that fought fiercely even for those few microscopic crumbs that remained on the plate.

I send you lots of kisses and attach, as usual, the recipe for what from today will be my infallible recipe for cookies.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Adapted from the 25 Years Special Edition of the Cook´s Illustrated Magazine

Makes 15-16 big cookies (8-10cm diameter)

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups of all-purpose flour (8¾ oz)

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 200 gr unsalted butter (14 tbsp)

• ¾ cup brown sugar

• ½ cup granulated sugar (3½ oz)

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 large egg

• 1 large yolk

• 1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (7½ oz)

Directions

1. Mix flour and baking soda in a bowl.

2. Melt 140 gr (10 oz) butter in a skillet over low-medium heat. Cook for 1-3 minutes, swirling the pan constantly until the butter becomes golden brown. Transfer to a big bowl and add the remaining butter.

3. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt to the melted butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk. Whisk well to make sure there are no lumps. Let the mixture stand for 3 minutes and whisk again. Repeat the same process twice more. The mixture should become thick, glossy and smooth.

4. Add the flour mixture and stir until fully incorporated.

5. Add the chocolate chips and give a final stir.

6. With the help of two spoons, form dough balls (the size depends on personal taste, I used two full spoons of dough per cookie) and place them on a baking pan lined with baking paper. Place them a few centimeters apart so they don’t stick to each other when baking.

7. Bake at 190 °C for about 10-14 minutes, or until the edges have begun to set and the centers are still soft. Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes and transfer to a rack to let them cool completely.