White, Dark and Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

White, Dark and Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies - made November 24, 2012, adapted from Culture Espresso's recipe

I can never resist trying a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  I have perfectly good recipes I like to use but my recipe ADD always kicks in when I see a variation of it and I always want to try it.  I veered off the reservation from the original recipe in that I didn't have European butter on hand but I did have a triple chocolate slab of chocolate as the last of my European stash from my summer travels so I went with that.  It had a solid milk chocolate base, topped with triangles of white chocolate, topped with dark chocolate.  I chopped the whole slab into chunks and added them to this cookie dough.

I originally made this dough because I thought I was seeing my friends, Todd and Rob, for dinner and Todd's favorite is chocolate chip cookies so whenever I meet with him, it gives me an excuse to try out a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Our dinner got canceled but I already had the dough in the freezer so when my nieces were visiting over Thanksgiving weekend, I baked these for them.  One of them was meeting with her friends when she got back to school so I gave her the batch to take for their dinner.  Friends and chocolate go well together, I always say.

This recipe is a little different than the usual chocolate chip cookie recipe in that it only has granulated sugar and no brown sugar.  The brown sugar is what gives chocolate chip cookies more of a caramel flavor.  With just white sugar as the sweetener, these cookies were still good and reminded me of a Pepperidge Farm Sausalito cookie (but better tasting).  It was more crisp throughout but not hard, a texture you usually only get with shortening in the dough but this was all butter.  Mine spread more than the picture that showed the original recipe.  I wonder what the difference would be if I had used European butter?  That might have to be a future experiment.

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) European-style unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups dark chocolate chunks

1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt until well combined.
2. In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing between additions and scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla extract and mix. On low speed or by hand, stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips, mixing until just incorporated. Do not over-mix. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
3. Using a cookie scoop, ice cream scoop, or two spoons, form dough balls and place on prepared cookie sheets with a few inches of room in between. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 F with rack in the center. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place dough balls evenly spaced on cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 10-13 minutes (depending on the size of your dough balls), until they are golden brown around the edges and puffy in the center. Let cookies cool a few minutes on baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.