Hugs and Cookies' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hugs and Cookies' Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 25, 2016, modified from Hugs and Cookies

This is one of the recipes where I consciously substituted ¼ cup of turbinado sugar for the granulated sugar and hence may be one of the reasons I ranked this in the “GREAT” category because I liked that sweet crunch.

But it also had the crisp edges and chewy middles I looked for in a good/great chocolate chip cookie. In addition, it was delicious.

The original recipe from Hugs & Cookies suggests preheating your oven to 425 degrees then lowering the temp to 375 when you put your cookies in to bake. The purpose is to set the cookies at high heat before they can spread too much. I tried it for the first baking sheet of cookies I put into the oven but even lowering it to 375 immediately after tended to brown my chocolate chips more than I wanted, probably because the oven was so hot to begin with. So I compromised by actually putting the cookies in at 360 degrees while my oven was still preheating to 375. It was at a high enough heat that the cookies could bake before spreading too much, it wasn’t so hot that my chocolate chips burned and by putting it in while the oven still had 15 degrees to heat, the oven was still actively heating. You know whenever you open your oven door, the heat escapes and the temp lowers. I’d rather put the cookies in while the oven is in active heating mode so when it stops at the proper temperature, my cookies are already safely in the oven.

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or 1/4 cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup turbinado sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and both sugars together until well blended. Add vanilla, egg and yolk and mix until combined. 
2. Add flour, salt and baking soda just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and freeze or chill for several hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets. Place in preheated oven and immediately reduce temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake 9 minutes or until edges are brown and middles are no longer raw. (Alternatively, you can do what I did and preheat oven to 375 degrees. When oven is at 360 degrees, place cookies in oven to bake and continue preheating to 375. Let bake at 375 for several minutes to set then reduce temp to 360 and finish baking.) Let cool on baking sheets for several minutes then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.