Thick, Huge and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've decided to share my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with you. It's not exactly a secret recipe, but it is really good. I highly recommend you make it - you won't be sorry :) They seriously look like cookies that are for display only. They are so big and round and chewy.

This recipe is from CookIllustrated.com. You will notice that the recipe also lists the ingredient amouts in ounces. If you aren't comfortable using a scale like this one, it's fine, just measure out your ingredients like you normally would. I personally like using a scale. I just stick a bowl on it and weigh my ingredients. No packing brown sugar or forgetting how many cups of flour I put it. Also, I weigh my cookies so they are all the same size. You might be rolling your eyes right now, but my cookies sure do come out pretty and uniform :)

Also, make sure you read the entire recipe and make sure you have all the ingredients before you start. Andrew made me lunch one day this week, and apparently he doesn't think it's important to read the entire recipe before you go to the store. For this reason, he ended up substituting Propel for chicken broth in the soup he made. Still not sure why he thought Propel was a good choice. At least he tried :) Anyways, back to the recipe...

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/8cups bleached all-purpose flour (about 10 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2teaspoon table salt
• 1/2teaspoon baking soda
• 12tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
• 1cup brown sugar (light or dark), 7 ounces
• 1/2cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
• 1large egg
• 1large egg yolk
• 2teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 - 2cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. 1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
2. 2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.
   
   
   3. Form a ball with about 1/4 of dough. These are supposed to be big. If you are weighing them, I usually make sure each ball is 2.2 oz. You don't want the edges to be smooth. This is not your typical smooth, round ball of dough. Jagged edges = cool texture when the cookie cooks. To make a jagged edge, split your ball of dough in half and rotate the halves so the rough, pulled apart side of the dough is on the outside. Then put your dough back together. 
   
   
   4. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. 
   * You don't have to use 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets. Regular cookie sheets work fine, you just might not be able to cook as many cookies at once. These spread out a lot so give them plenty of room. 
   
   
   5.  Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). I have found that 17 minutes works for my oven, rotating them at 8 and a half minutes.