Noah's Chocolate Chocolatey Chocolate Chips

Noah's Chocolate Chocolatey Chocolate Chips - made November 17, 2010 from All-Butter, Fresh-Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book from Rosie's Bakery by Judy Rosenberg (book #13)

If you're a chocoholic, you've got to be favorably predisposed to any recipe that's got a rendition of chocolate three times in its title.  I've had good luck with recipes from both of the Rosie's Bakery books I have so I figured this was a safe bet.  I needed cookies for a couple of meetings this week so I made the cookie dough for this last weekend and kept them in the freezer until I needed them.  Which was a good thing so I put in a long day at work the day before I needed them and didn't have much energy beyond throwing the dough balls into the oven.  I put my oven on the convection setting and only baked one pan at a time in the hopes that that would help keep them from spreading too much.  That worked and while they weren't thick, they weren't thin either.  I also deliberately made the dough balls smaller than usual.  Next time I want to make them bigger and see if they'll still spread less and make a thicker cookie.

This is a good chocolate chocolate chip cookie.  You do have to time this since it's sometimes hard to tell when chocolate cookies are done since you can't always go by appearance or how soft the dough looks in the middle.  You want to bake long enough that it doesn't look raw in the middle but take it out before they're fully cooked.  Since it's a chocolate cookie, the chocolate will help the cookie set and, when underbaked just right, you'll have a fudgy interior with crisp or chewy edges.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 ¼ cups (lightly packed) light brown sugar

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

8 ounces (1 ¼ cups) semisweet chocolate chips (I used 12 ounces of milk chocolate chips)

1.        Preheat oven to 400˚F.  Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.       Melt the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the top half touch the boiling water). Then remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly.  (You want it cool enough that it doesn’t melt the butter-sugar mixture you’ll be adding it to but not so cool that it’s difficult to add into the mixture.)

3.       Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together into a small bowl and set aside.

4.       Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and both sugars together in a medium-size bowl until light and fluffy, 1 ½ to 2 minutes.  Stop the mixer twice during the process to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.

5.       Add the eggs and egg yolk and beat on medium speed until they are blended, about 30 seconds.  Scrape the bowl.  Add the (cooled) melted chocolate and blend until mixed, about 10 seconds, stopping the mixer once to scrape the bowl.

6.       Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed for 15 seconds.  (I add the flour ½ cup at a time and mix very briefly until most of it is incorporated before I add another ½ cup.)

7.       Add the chocolate chips and blend until they are mixed in, 5 to 8 seconds.  (I added all of a 12-ounce bag and reserved a handful for the last of the dough once I scooped out the cookie dough balls.)

8.       Drop the dough by generously rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.

9.       Bake the cookies until the centers are puffed up and lightly cracked, but still soft, 12 to 13 minutes.  Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the sheets.