Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Gourmandise School   of Sweets and Savories

It's mine. There are few things that clear your mind better than a warm chocolate chip cookie. Try it.  Your adventure starts with the search for chocolate. Chips won't do but in a pinch; they've got too many stabilizers. What you want is great chocolate, either in disc form or a large block you can chip away from. Two: organic brown sugar. It's got loads more flavor and color than conventional. Three: two eggs, unbleached flour, baking soda, salt. Grab a wooden spoon, hand-held or stand mixer. A light-colored cookie sheet, if you can, and some parchment paper or foil. Before you start, forget what you've heard about room temperature butter. Picture your stick of butter. It's made of about 19% water, so imagine for a second that this water is perfectly suspended in tiny droplets all throughout the stick. When your cookie begins to bake, this water will attempt an escape from the cookie- helping it rise. Any of you ever attempt to warm your butter in the microwave? Did you end up with flat cookies? Yup. That water evaporated. It's gone. So cream the cold-ish butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, cream until it's smooth. Add chocolate pieces, salt and flour. Wait. Where's the vanilla. No vanilla; save it for cake. What we love best about cookies is biting into a warm, crisp-on-the-outside, chewy on the inside cookie and then tasting CHOCOLATE. Chocolate has plenty of vanilla in it, and keeping the flavor out of the cookie will create a more intense, cocoa-flavored experience as your tastebuds travel from cookie to chocolate. You're very welcome. Chocolate Chip Cookies In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine: 2 sticks butter 2 cups packed brown sugar Set aside: 2 eggs about 2 cups chocolate pieces (more is better) In a medium bowl, whisk together: 1 tsp baking soda 2-1/2 cups flour 3/4 tsp salt 1. Cream butter with brown sugar until it looks fluffy. 2. Add your eggs and scrape the bowl well.  Keep mixing for 1 more minute and add the chocolate pieces.  Mix until just combined 3. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. 4. Scoop your cookies on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until lightly golden brown, just on the edges. Place the cookie sheet on a rack or over your stove and let the cookies finish cooking another 5-10 minutes before removing. Wishing you a delicious day,  Clémence and Hadley