My Favorite Chocolate Chip-and-Chunk Cookies

This one doesn’t really take a lot of explanation. Who doesn’t like cookies? And who among us cookie-lovers doesn’t count chocolate chip near the top of the list?

Sure, I love all kinds of cookies: oatmeal-raisin, peanut butter, a wide variety of molasses-spice (Joe Froggers recipe coming soon!), butter cookies with or without fruit fillings, chocolate crinkles, those no-bake cocoa-oatmeal-coconut things that are almost candy… but when it comes time to bake cookies, it’s chocolate chip 80% of the time.

And if it’s chocolate chip, it’s always this recipe, from the encyclopedic King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. This was my first KAF cookbook, a gift from my brother. Every cookie I’ve made from it has been fantastic; I have since added the KAF Whole Grain Baking and more general Baker’s Companion to my cookbook shelf, and I trust them all completely and recommend them to you without reservation.

There are a few special tools I use when baking cookies: a KitchenAid mixer, which is a major investment, but I am grateful for it every time I cream butter and sugar together and can just walk away from the process and let it go on without me; a BeaterBlade, which scrapes the sides of the bowl during processing so I can avoid that laborious step; and a cookie scoop, basically a small ice-cream scoop that makes the process of forming the cookies a cinch. They come in two sizes, and if you bake a lot of cookies, it’s worth the small investment.

This recipe has a couple of unusual ingredients: corn syrup (not the same thing as high-fructose corn syrup) and vinegar. The corn syrup helps maintain moisture in the cookies to keep them chewy; the vinegar tempers the cookies’ sweetness just a tiny bit for a more sophisticated flavor, and also reacts with the baking soda for just a bit more lift.

The real questions, however, revolve around the chocolate. What kind, and – just as important – what size? Regular size or mini chips spread more widely throughout the cookie, delivering chocolate with each bite; extra-large chips, wafers, or chunks hit you with a satisfying wallop of chocolate, as well as oozing wonderfully when the cookies are eaten warm.

My solution is to use both, and in large quantity: This recipe calls for three cups of chocolate chips and chunks. That’s a lot of chocolate – you’ll almost never have a chocolate-free bite. As for what kind of chocolate, I use a variety of semi-sweet and bittersweet. I almost always include a cup of semi-sweet Toll House morsels, as well as Ghirardelli or Guittard bittersweet wafers. Sometimes I put in some milk chocolate too. Use what you love – just make sure it’s good stuff, because there’s a lot of it.

Most baking recipes specify unsalted butter; I almost always use salted and just scale back the added salt a tiny bit. Use whichever you prefer.

My Favorite Chocolate Chip-and-Chunk Cookies

Makes: 3 to 4 dozen cookies Time: About an hour

3/4 cup butter, slightly softened

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2.25 cups (9.5 oz) all-purpose flour (can substitute up to 3/4 cup white whole wheat)

3 cups mixed chocolate chips and wafers or chunks

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat (such as a Silpat).

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars; when light and fluffy, add the corn syrup and vinegar and beat another minute. Beat in one egg, then the other. Beat in the vanilla, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Use a strong wooden spoon or similar utensil to stir in the flour (I’ve broken weaker spoons this way), then stir in the chocolate.

Drop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets in well-rounded tablepoonsful, leaving room for them to spread. Bake for 10-13 minutes (it always takes me at least 13 because I’m at altitude and tend toward bigger cookies). You want the cookies to be browned underneath but just set on top; they may look a little pale and underdone. (If they still seem raw in the center or haven’t browned underneath, put them back in for 2-3 minutes, until they are set.)

Let rest on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then remove to racks to cool. This is very easy to do with parchment paper – just slide the whole piece from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack.

Or do what I do – bake as many cookies as you want to eat right away, then drop the rest on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer. Freeze overnight until very hard, then move to a freezer bag and store in the freezer. Now you can have fresh-baked cookies in less than half an hour with almost no work! Place in the preheated oven straight from the freezer. They will take an extra 3 or 4 minutes to bake. Serve warm, with a little glass of milk. Pure luxury.

NaBloPoMo 2014 Post #9

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