Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Soft-Baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies - made February 17, 2010 from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle

Another good chocolate chip cookie recipe from Tish Boyle. This one is exceedingly easy to make, especially since it calls for melting the butter and you mix it by hand in no time. In fact, last night when I made it, it took me longer to drive less than a mile through road construction traffic on my way home than it did for me to mix up this batch of cookie dough when I did finally get home.

I made the dough, portioned it out in generous cookie dough balls and put them to freeze. Once they were frozen (and unlike the sour cream chocolate chip cookie dough, these froze obligingly), I put them in a ziploc freezer bag and baked them off tonight. Like with most chocolate chip cookie recipes, I made them with milk chocolate chips, my chips of choice, and this time I added M&M plain candies. I still had more than a bag leftover from Valentine's Day :).

These came out the way I like chocolate chip cookies - with crisp edges and chewy middles, especially since I underbaked them slightly. This is very similar in taste and texture to the Big Fat Chewy Cookie recipe I blogged about earlier. You can't go wrong with either recipe. Oh and don't be wimpy on the cookie size. As the recipe says, this will make 18 cookies only if you make them big enough.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into ¼-inch pieces
2/3 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugars. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, whisking until well blended. Whisk in the vanilla. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the dry ingredients until combined. Stir in the chocolate and walnuts. (The dough can be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 4 days or frozen for up to a month.)
4. Using a ¼-cup measure or ice cream scoop, drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake, two sheets at a time, for 15 to 18 minutes, until the cookies are just brown around the edges; switch the position of the sheets halfway through baking. The centers of the cookies should be soft and slightly puffy. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets or wire racks.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days. Makes about 18 cookies.