very close replica of my own cookie-goodness by esthereggy via flickr

I can, at times, be a cookie snob.  I like my cookies just so: a little crunch on the outside with a nice gooey, chewy center.  Most recipes I’ve tried have turned out agreeable results, but never have I found a recipe that just oozes cookie-ness.  Until now.

Exploring the Not Without Salt website, I came across a recipe for what the blog’s writer, Ashley, touts as “The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie.”  Pretty lofty title for such a humble confection.  However, she could not possibly be more correct.  The dough tastes of a classic brown sugar cookie dough; it’s light but with some heft, so neither do you feel like you’re biting into a biscuit, nor does it cook into some wafer-thin cracker (two problems I’ve had with previous recipes).  The chocolate is, in one word, abundant.  And spread throughout the cookie so that every bite contains its melty bits.

I’ve adapted Ashley’s recipe for my own time and budget, cutting out the Turbinado sugar (and just using granulated sugar) and using Trader Joe’s milk chocolate chips (which I ran, semi-successfully, through a food processor to chop up a bit) instead of fancy chocolate.  Also, I forgot to sprinkle on the sea salt, which was probably to my detriment, because I can only imagine how amazing these must be with a little crunch of saltiness on top.  Regardless, despite my ommissions and additions, these were by far the best cookies I’ve ever made.  Enjoy!

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie by Ashley at notwithoutsalt.com

2 sticks butter

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup Turbinado sugar

1 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

2  eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cup All Purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 lb. chocolate (use the best quality chocolate you can afford. With a serrated knife cut chocolate chunks roughly 1/2 inch)

Cream the butter and the sugars until light. Scrape down the side of the bowl. Continue mixing while adding the eggs one at time. Make sure each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula. Combine the flour, soda and salt in another bowl. With a whisk, stir to combine. With the machine on low, slowly add the flour. Mix until just combined, taking care not to over mix. With a spatula fold in the chocolate.

If you so choose, and I do recommend that you do, sprinkle a very fine dusting of good quality sea salt. Fleur de Sel or Murray River Pink Salt are my recommendations.

Bake at 360* for 12 minutes. They should be lightly golden on the outside but still look gooey on the inside.

I was watching the Food Network tonight and Throwdown with Bobby Flay came on.  Now, let me rant for a moment.  I believe the premise of this show is horrible.  Not that it’s a poorly produced show; rather, it is one of the most mean-spirited shows on television.  Demeaning, even.  Here, they take some locally known chef who has this one dish they do extremely well.  They don’t have a fancy show or legions of suburban moms drooling over their curly auburn locks.  So, the Food Network contacts these people and fools them into believing they are about to be a part of a Food Network special!  “Oh happy day, haven’t I made it big!!”  I can only imagine the celebration that goes off in that chef’s naive, trusting, cream-puff-filled head.

So they make him/her play the fool, and tape with an audience as the chef showcases his dish; then, in the middle of it– in struts Bobby Flay!  “I’m challenging you to a throwdown!… In hopes that I can inflate my already over-inflated sense of self-satisfaction.”  Ok, I’ll concede, he seems like a really decent guy.  But, you’d have a smile the size of Texas plastered on your face, too, if a single book deal even made your banker go CAH-CHING!  This man has made millions while his “throwdown adversaries” are generally still cooking out of makeshift, home kitchens.  So instead of being featured in their own Food Network special, suddenly they’re the bumbling sidekick in Bobby Flay’s Food Network Special.  That’s why I feel no certain amount of glee when he loses.

Anyway, I digress.  Tonight’s episode featured the Dessert Truck in New York, and their famous bread pudding.  Just witnessing the custard sauce glaze the gooey batch of chocolate bread pudding was enough to make all my tastebuds light up with delight!  And, yes, there was some drooling.  I couldn’t help it.  So I found this recipe for Butterscotch Bread Pudding.  Results to follow as soon as I procure a quasi-essential ingredient:  some bread.

It’s beyond freezing in Boston, hope you all are warming up with something sweet, tonight!