Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough August 23, 2013, adapted from Crazy for Crust

Never let it be said I'll pass up trying a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Because I won't.  Especially when they're big cookies loaded with chocolate chips. And have brown butter.  And come from a food blogger whose taste seems so similar to my own and whose recipes I've tried before with much success.  This is no exception.  In fact, I'll even go so far as to say this may dislodge one of my previously favorite recipes for chocolate chip cookies and take one of the top 2 spots for chocolate chip cookie greatness. It ranks right up there with Alton Brown's recipe in my book.

Actually, it might even have a slight edge over Alton's recipe although I may have to bake both and try them "side by side".  You know, just to be sure.  But for now, I'm going off of sensory memory.  My taste buds have excellent recall. Why do I like this particular cookie so much? Well, you all know my idea of an optimal chocolate chip cookie eating experience is to eat it warm, 10 minutes out of the oven.  Eat it too soon and it's more gooey than chewy, not to mention you burn your tongue (er, not that I would know or anything).  But give it 10 minutes to cool and the edges have had time to get a little crisp while the middle is still soft and the chocolate chips are still melt-y.  Yum.  But oftentimes, a good chocolate chip cookies 10 minutes out of the oven is only so-so once it's completely cool.  That's when I notice it's too sweet or the texture isn't quite so chewy at room temp or it stales too fast and less than a day later it's already dry.

This particular cookie was fantastic 10 minutes out of the oven but even better(!) once it had cooled. The taste held up as well as the texture.  I actually baked it a minute or two longer than Dorothy's original instructions because I preferred it a little more baked than gooey.  The only other thing I did differently was instead of mini chocolate chips, I chopped up a slab of milk chocolate into chunks and used that instead. So good. Like "extra miles on the treadmill worth it" good.

Just to show you how thick these cookies bake up, here's a comparison of one of the cookies against my iphone encased in its Otterbox - pretty chubby, eh? 

2 sticks butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract, optional (I left it out)
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chunks)

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, about 6 minutes, until it becomes brown in color. It will foam, reduce, then foam again. Once it’s done cooking the foam is a light brown and it will dissipate after you remove it from the heat. Once it starts to brown, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn. Let sit for about 5 minutes to cool.
2. Pour into an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. While still hot, add both sugars and mix on low until combined. Let sit to cool for a few minutes.
3. While butter mixture is cooling, combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir and set aside.
4. Turn mixer (with butter mixture bowl attached) on low. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing completely. Mix in vanilla extract and almond extract (optional, but it adds great flavor). Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough for at least 3 hours. (My alternative: I portioned the dough into generous-sized dough balls first, placed them in an upside-down plastic pie cover, covered them in plastic wrap then chilled them overnight.  This way you can bake them directly when you're ready.)
6. Preheat oven to 350°. Line cookie sheets with parchment or silpat liners. If you didn't already portion your dough into dough balls, you may need to let the bowl of cookie dough sit at room temp for about 20 minutes before you can scoop it.
7. Scoop out 1/4 cup sized balls and place 6-8 on a sheet. They don’t spread a lot, but they’re BIG cookies.
8. Bake for about 11-12 minutes. They will be golden on the outside and still doughy on the inside. Let cool for 5 minutes, and then remove from pans to cool completely.