Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough November 12, 2016, adapted from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans

I went through another bout of going through my baking books and pulling out a recipe to try from one of them. Not being sick of chocolate chip cookies yet (or ever), I thought these would be promising. Having come from by bout of Levain copycat recipes, I thought I'd add these to the repertoire.

Alas, no. There was nothing wrong with the flavor of these but honestly? They spread, they were thinner than I would've liked and they reminded me of my early baking days when I was futilely trying to recreate Mrs. Fields' chocolate chip cookies. My, how far I've come since those old baking days. Because these were dismayingly ordinary. No thickness, no chubbiness, nothing intriguing unfortunately. The taste was fine but more Nestle Tollhouse than Levain Bakery.

So, after the taste test cookie baked/spread so thin, I used the rest of the dough for "pizzookies". Meaning I baked the dough balls in single serving ramekins and served them warm with vanilla ice cream at our Thanksgiving lunch. They worked just fine then. Now you know - next time you have cookie dough that spreads too much, just bake them in ramekins and serve them warm with ice cream. When you bake them in ramekins, they literally can't spread any further than in the ramekin and those kinds of doughs are actually better to use as ramekin desserts since they're generally pretty buttery and definitely not cakey when baked that way.

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces shortening
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) chocolate chips

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. Cream together butter and shortening until blended. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat until combined. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until just combined.
3. Add dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. If dough is soft, chill briefly, 20-30 minutes. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover, and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Evenly space cookies on baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden and middles are just barely not shiny or raw. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely.