chocolate chip cookies Tag

My mother insists I didn't drive her to what she politely referred to as "the brink of distraction." She may well have found my inquisitive nature delightful, but my non-stop questions got under her skin. When Mom had reached her limit, she would cup her...

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies - TheMessyBaker.com A while ago I solicited recipes for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. A lot of suggestions rolled in. Conflicting opinions on walnuts, oatmeal and chefs flew through cyberspace. Some people loved Alton Brown's recipe. Others called it "cakey" and touted the ever-popular David Lebovitz. Thomas Keller's name cropped up frequently, while a small but vocal group swore on their grandmother's baking pans that Cook's Illustrated's browned butter version was the best. Make that The Very Best. Ever. So I did some research into the various options. Some recipes called for chopped chocolate. But with chips readily available that just seemed like extra work. Other recipes used bread flour, which I don't stock. So I nixed them. Many demanded an extra yolk. Needless to say, I was a little put off by this requirement since I hate wasting food and never know what to do with an extra white. Two or three? Make meringues. But one? However, I adore browned butter and hunted down the Cook's Illustrated recipe. Even though it called for that pesky extra yolk, it used ordinary flour and included my beloved walnuts. So I was willing to sacrifice some albumin for the cause. Then I read the instructions.
While one of the contractors called these cookies "the devil" because they were so addictive, do you really need the recipe? I'm serious. I Googled "chocolate chip cookie recipe" (in quotes) and got 168,000 hits. Remove the quotes and the number jumps to 770,000.  How can I compete with numbers like that? I can't. And I really wonder if I should. This delicious but traditional recipe uses butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, vanilla, semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts.  Unless you're vegan or on a gluten-free diet, 96.42% of your standard chocolate chip cookie recipes use these ingredients. Sure you can substitute different nuts, alter the type of chips or get fancy by adding orange rind. But have you ever met an honest-to-goodness chocolate chip cookie recipe you didn't like?

I didn't make this dessert. My younger sister did. The entire dish was earmarked for her boyfriend. But she loves me enough to let me take a few photographs of the last serving reserved for him. She even provided the martini glass. I love her enough...