1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cup + 2 tbl. unsifted, bleached, all pu, rpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 yolk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Directions
Place a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 325 F.
Temperature is critical so use an oven thermometer to verify the
correct oven temperature and adjust as necessary. Melt the butter in
a small saucepan and set aside to cool until it's lukewarm. In a
large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt. Do not sift.
Place both sugars in a medium mixing bowl. Pour melted butter into
sugar and mix until completely blended. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla
extract. Mix until blended. Add flour mixture and mix until blended.
Add chocolate chips. Mix just until chips are evenly distributed.
Line 11 x 17 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Don't use waxed
paper. It's too flammable.
Baking Instructions: Using a scant 1/4 cup of cookie dough, roll a
ball in the palms of your hands. Grab the ball with the fingertips of
both hands and pull the dough into two pieces resembling half moons.
Rotate the halves so the two jagged/flat sides point toward the
ceiling and push the two halves together. You'll now have a cookie
with a jagged top surface (they look like little tree stumps). (I
didn't do this for all of them and they were fine) Place the cookies
(about 6 per sheet) onto the cookie sheets. Put cookies in oven and
bake for 15 minutes.
Start checking for doneness after about 13 minutes and every two
minutes thereafter. They are done when they are turning light golden
brown and the edges are starting to get dry and firm while the
centers are still soft. Cool cookies completely on their cookie
sheets.
The twin secrets to these "mall style" cookies are the melted butter
and the extra egg yolk.
Serving Suggestions Serve warm or allow to cool completely. Store
completely cooled cookies in airtight containers, separating layers of
cookies with waxed paper. The dough will keep refrigerated for 2 days
and frozen for about 30 days. Be sure to wrap it closely with plastic
wrap and place it in an airtight container. Thaw frozen dough
overnight in the refrigerator. Baked cookies will keep in the freezer
for a few weeks. Wrap individually in plastic wrap. Thaw 15 minutes
at room temperature for a quick cookie fix.
NOTES: 1) The dark brown sugar makes darker colored cookies. The light
brown or golden brown sugar makes lighter colored cookies. I prefer
the dark ones because of the little extra flavor the molasses adds.
2) For a nice variation, use light brown sugar instead of dark,
substitute white chocolate chips, and add 2 or 3 tsp. grated orange
peel (from one large orange), to the batter. These are called White
Chip, Orange Dream Cookies.
Mark Kilinski, Coral Springs, FL markk@gate.net
Servings: 18 cookies
Big Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Chocolate; Cookie; Dessert
The History of Recipes
It is quite possible to trace the history of recipes back into the distant past, at least as far back into history as the ancient Egyptians, and possibly even further. Having said that, mostly, these early records were just simple hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for food preparation.
The truth of the matter is, the most ancient recipe discovered so far, according to experts in ancient history is a collection of tablets in the Sumerian language which show the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made drinkers feel blissful and exhilarated. As we move into The time of the romans around 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a number of documents which described recipes enjoyed by the Romans. In his works, Apicius tells us how the meals of wealthy Romans were split into starters, main meal and afters, something we still use today. Additionally, he describes how the cooks of Roman times were skilled in the use of many herbs and spices, including some that we all recognise like bay, fennel and parsley. As we move on, there were a couple of interesting cookery books dating from the 14th Century ; a book entitled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary called `Curye on Inglish`. Don`t be fooled by the titles though, they have no connection with the curry that is familiar to us all today, but rather recipes for the types of food on the menus of the upper classes. Later, in the fifteenth century, people returning from the crusades brought us many new foods, spices and herbs from middle-east cuisine, such as rosemary and coriander. These new culinary innovations was responsible for an explosion in manuscripts on cooking, most of which are now in private collections. During the next few centuries, the rich and powerful families of Wesstern Europe tried to serve up the best banquets, and because of this cooks and their recipe collections increased in prestige. Notwithstanding that, it was during the 19th century that cooking and recipe books rose to prominence. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Farmer in the US, devoted much of their lives to collating, verifying, and writing down recipes to help cooks of their time. By the advent of the 20th century, cookery books were increasing in popularity due to higher levels of literacy, people having more free time and a general increase in wealth. The revolution that is television brings us celebrity chefs and the spin-off recipe books. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everybody to access massive numbers of recipes like the ones you can find on our web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Big Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe.
