World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (By Dorie Greenspan)

By sunshine68

This recipe makes a perfect chocolate chip cookie that is both chewy and crispy. It is from Dorie Greenspan's excellent cookbook, "BAKING: From My Home to Yours". Including nuts is highly recommended.
Some variations: for chocolate chocolate chip cookies, substitute 3/4 cup of flour for 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder; for espresso chocolate chip cookies, add 1 1/2 tablespoons espresso powder after the vanilla extract; for a coconut version, add 1 1/2 cups sweetened (toasted or untoasted) shredded coconut when adding the chocolate chips; and for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, substitute 1/2 cup of peanut butter for 1/2 a stick of butter and beat them together before adding sugar (and use peanuts). Enjoy!

Note: The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen. If you'd like, rounded tablespoonfuls of dough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when they're solid. There's no need to defrost the dough before baking-just add another minute or two to the baking time.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips or 2 cups store-bought chocolate chips or 2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional) or 1 cup pecans (optional)

Details

Servings 1
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 20mins
Adapted from food.com

Preparation

Step 1

1 Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. 2 Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. 3 Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well-blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes inches Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and nuts. 4 Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls. 5 Bake the cookies- one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point- for 10-12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle, and that's just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature. 6 Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.