Friday, February 5, 2010

i heart david... and his cookie recipe






I've been busy in my kitchen all week - first I attempted Joy the Baker's Root beer float cake (delish... will post my attempt soon), then I baked Elissa's (from 17 and baking - awesome blog btw) tiny peanut butter chocolate chip buttons, some of my kidney bean cookies (which, although Zabi said "sound just awful" they aren't... they are fantastic!!), many many banana loafs and finally these cookies.

These cookies are simply perfect. A thin and crispy cookie that still maintains a chewy centre - nothing dry, hard or dense about these babies. These cookies rocked my world this week.

I'd been asked by my cousin Olivier to make bake cookies. He wanted plain ol' chocolate chip cookies... he claimed (correctly) that I don't have a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe on my blog... it's true. I seem to either hit up triple chocolate cookies or I favour cookies with oatmeal, raisins, nuts... nothing that is perfect for dunking in a tall glass of milk after a hard day at school :0)

This recipe is for Olivier - as are the dozen cookies I got out of it (well, minus 1 cookie - you can't blame a girl for taste testing can you?). Super simple - you should try making these too!

Oh, and a HUGE thank you to David Lebovitz (whom I don't know personally, but feel like I do whenever I surf his blog) - these really are the greatest "plain ol'" cookies. EVER.

David Lebovitz's Great Chocolate Chip Cookie
ingredients:
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. (1 stick) cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cube pieces
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt (if using salted butter, you can omit this)
1 1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 300F (you want your racks to be in the top 1/3rd of the oven). Line (or spray) baking sheets with parchment paper (I used 4 cookie sheets).

In the bowl of your stand mixer, and using your paddle attachment, beat the sugars and the butter together until smooth (a couple of minutes). Mix in the egg, vanilla and baking soda.

In a smaller bowl, mix together your flour and salt (if adding). Mix them into the sugar/butter batter. Finally, mix in the chocolate chips (always at the stir speed of your mixer).

You might think that you are using way too many chocolate chips for the butter/sugar/flour ratio. YOU AREN'T! Chocolate chips are good - so dump them in!

I used my mini ice-cream scoop (great investment) and scooped out the dough, placed each ball on the cookie sheets (9 per sheet), spaced quite a bit apart (these spread). Flatten each of them a little with your hand.

Bake for 18 minutes (or golden brown). You don't want to over bake though... so once the edges are golden and firm, take the cookies out of the oven, allow to rest on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then remove and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. I'd like to say that they last much longer... but these are cookies. They aren't meant to last forever... grab your glass, pour some milk and enjoy.

I was able to get 23 cookies out of this recipe.

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