Homemade Home

Today we are finally initiating our new home, aka: housewarming! It'll be a potluck so I don't really have to worry about the 20 some odd people about to descend on our little abode. However, I did decide to take on the desserts and drinks.

We decided to go the traditional route for the drinks. Beer for the boys and something a little more fruity for the drinks.

But the desserts? Well this little mixer doesn't just serve any old dessert. As always I did it all from scratch. Tonight I'm going with Haupia and Chocolate Pie and some the best cookies I've ever made (in the form of Chocolate Chip Cookies). What I ask you, makes something feel more like home than homemade chocolate chip cookies? Hum? NOTHING! It's the end all be all of comfort food. Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Can't be beat. Nope nope nope.

This glorious recipe comes from what I've dubbed the Baking Bible, the Bible for short. Every sanctuary needs some place to get life advice from, I get mine from a little cookbook called Baker's Illustrated, published by the folks at America's Test Kitchen. I'll go into this book more at a later date, but for now let it suffice to say that every recipe I've tried (with the exception of a pie crust, which may be my fault) has exceeded expectations. They are in constant search of the perfect fill-in-the-blank and always have amazing tips (one of which will come later in this recipe).

Either way, these are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. I may also have a secret ingredient that I drop in for good measure. ;-)

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 tablespoons melted butter (then cooled till warm)

1 c. packed (7oz) light or dark brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 drop Fiori di Sicilia (aka secret ingredient)

1-1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Gadgets and Gizmos

cookie sheets (the double layer super-duper kinds are by far and away the best to use)

1 large bowl

1 medium bowl

1 small bowl

wooden spoon

wisk

cooling racks

wide spatula (the thinner the thickness the better)

Directions

Adjust the oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with and electric mixer (I just got my Kitchen Aid mixer in the mail, GLORIOUS! That said, there is something about mixing cookie dough by hand that I prefer) mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk and vanilla until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

*Now this is the part that I think made these puppies perfection!* Instead of plopping them onto the cookie sheet hoping they turn out decent looking, the perfectionists at America's Test Kitchen took cookie plopping to the next level.

Take a lump of dough (your standard size, nothing special here) and roll it into a ball. Then pull the ball in half and rotate until the rough sides are facing out. Finally, stick the two halves carefully together. At this point the top will be all dimply etc. and the smooth bits will be on the bottom and inside. Get it? If not maybe this image will help you out a bit. In the picture I have just split apart the dough and am about to roll the smooth edges down to stick them together.

I guess the final finally is to place these items of drool-worth beauty on the cookie sheet spaced roughly 2 inches apart and stick them in the oven for 15-18 minutes or until they turn golden brown. Once they have baked, let them cool on the sheet. Remove the little golden beauties from the sheet with a wide spatula and place in a stomach for storage.

Okay fine, you can use a plate or some other container to store them too. Either way, Buon Appitito!