How can anyone possibly resist a freshly baked drop cookie especially with a glass of ice cold milk but now we have to start with the basics the classic chocolate chip cookie. I'll start by measuring out half a cup of butter that's 4 ounces by weight And I find it's easier to measure by weight then put my butter into a measuring cup I've got exactly four onces there. I judge a good chocolate chip on that balance of crispy outside, chewy inside sweetness to dark chocolate chips and it's all about those nuances. I find, to get just that right amount of sweetness I need half a cup granulated sugar and also half a cup of light brown sugar. It's easy enough to make drop cookies by hand. But an important step is this process called craming. Using your spatula and rubbing against the side of the bowl the butter and the sugar to cream the butter an sugar together. And that lends structure to the cookie so they'll hold together, they wont crumble apart. And as soon as you see this creamy consistency, then you can add an egg. Because my butter was at room temperature it's a good idea to have your egg at room temperature. At the same time, I'll add a teaspoon of vanilla and just blend this together. Okay Now, for the dry ingredints I'll ad a cup and a quarter of all purpuse flour. And now, I'll share with you my signature ingredient to add to chocolate chip cookies a tablespoon of corn starch. I am a big fan of cookies that are crispy on the outside but chewy on the center. This addition wil ensure they will stay soft in the center. Now, I'll add half a teasppon of baking soda Half a teaspoon of salt And I'll just sift this through and then just combine until blended. You don't commonly associate the work of a pastry chef with something simple, like a drop cookie. But honestly, in my profession, I've made thousands of drop cookies. So you really get a lot of practice in there. There we go, I've got the flour blended into the dough And of course, where would a chocolate chip cookie be without the chocolate chips? I am using chocolate chips, that are made for chocolate chip cookies. And they hold their shape they also set up nicely after they've cooled. I find that a cup and a half is the perfect amount. You need to have a bit of chocolate in every bite That being said, if you're big fan, a little bit extra is just fine. I also like to add a cup of chopped, toasted pecans. So of course the idea here is to make sure that the chips and pecans are really worked into the cookie dough batter. You can really tell by this dough that every bite is going to get more than one chocolate chip. Okay, now it's time for scooping and dropping the cookies The simplest technique is to just use a measurement of about two tablespoons quickly roll it in your hands into a ball shape. A question I get asked often about chocolate chip cookies is why you can make the same particular recipe but they bake out differently. Sometimes they spread, and sometimes they hold their shape. It's the room temperature butter you start with that impacts the way that bakes. To fix that, simply preshape your cookies like I am now and then pop the dough in the fridge for an hour When it sets the dough no matter how you started with your cookie recipe they will always bake out beautifully. Now I fit 24 cookies on this one tray Not that I'm going to bake 24 on one tray but it takes up less space in the fridge when I chill them. I'll just pop these in the fridge to chill for an hour and I have a tray that's already spent an hour in the fridge. As you can see, these are quite firmly set now so I know, they'll bake off evenly. A great tip to get ahead on your cookie baking is to actually make your batches chill them like this then you can actually pack them up together in resealable bags and freeze them. You need emergency cookies after a really bad day at school? Pull out two or three let them thaw for twenty minutes on the counter before baking and you've got freshly baked cookies on the spot. So now, of course I have to make room for the cookies to bake So I'll put twelve on each tray It's a good idea to leave about 2 inches space between each of the cookies in all directions. Here we go, evenly spaced. I've preheted my oven to 355 and the cookies take between 15 and 18 minutes to turn a nice golden brown just around the edges. I let my chocolate chip cookies cool on their tray before removing them so they set up a little bit I have a tray that's just cool That is the hardest part about making chocolate chip cookies waiting for them to cool just a little bit. But you can see! Chocolate, this is still soft and melting. And the cookies are chewy all the way through Every bite is gonna have some chocolate chip and a little bit of that buttery pecan.
