best ever chocolate chip cookies

I have a very small confession. This recipe is sort of already up on the blog. I hemmed and hawed about posting this up again (I never just haw. I sometimes hem alone, but haw never gets much use away from hem. Or hee I guess, if you are a donkey), but I think it's worth it. These chocolate chip cookies are from Dorie Greenspan and they are magical. I’m worried that I kind of over-fancied them up in their previous appearance here and that distracted from the fact that these are the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I made the recipe for the blog with blueberries, white chocolate and pistachios, which was a fun dalliance with some alternative flavours, but I just want to emphatically say that with chocolate chips, these are just amazing. They are really spready, which I like, and not at all cakey. They are crispy-caramelly at the edges and soft and chewy in the centre. I always err on the side of a little underbaked - they will set up a bit more as they cool and they MUST have chewy centres. The contrast between the thin, almost lacy outsides and gooey-soft middles is maybe the very best part.

All of this is to saw that Dorie Greenspan is an amazing cookie genius and her chocolate chip cookies are the best ever and all I will ever need chocolate-chip-cookie-wise for the rest of my life. She is also hugely stylish, with excellent glasses-scarf-hair game that comes off as charmingly elfish and I want to borrow her scarves. I have a big cookie-crush! I urge you to peruse her recipes, I have never been disappointed yet.

best ever chocolate chip cookies:

From Baking: From My Home to Yours by way of Food52

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ¾ teaspoon baking soda

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature

• 1 cup sugar

• ⅔ cup brown sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (I like combining milk, dark and white chocolate)

• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

• A pinch of flaky salt (optional)

Heat oven to 375F.

Cream sugars and butter in a stand mixer on medium speed until very fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time beating between additions.

Add dry ingredients and beat on low speed until well combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure that you incorporate any unmixed flour.

Add chocolate and nuts if using, mix until evenly distributed.

Scoop 2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle a little salt over each ball if desired. Leave plenty of space, these are very spready. Bake 8-10 minutes, take them out before they look completely set.

hazelnut & blond chocolate crispies

Oh my god, do you guys know about dishwashers? They are pretty great. I just moved into a new apartment with many lovely features, including a backyard & garden in which I have some little sprouts growing and some really nice stained glass windows and a big lovely kitchen with a dishwasher! This thing just washes your dishes for you. I can sit and have a cup of tea, and the dishes are being washed by a robot. It's the best thing ever. I can't recommend it enough. I feel like I have won the lottery, but more so. I shall endeavour to never live dishwasherless again. I just put the bowls and spatulas from this recipe right in there, and the elves that live in my dishwasher cleaned 'em right up. 

These crispy squares are a teeny, tiny bit more work than the standard version, but not too much. And it's totally worth the wee bit of extra effort for the nutty, toasty, toffee flavours. Toasting the cereal and roasting the white chocolate is quick and easy, but they add depth and toffee-nuttiness. Puffed rice cereal is classic, but you can use any puffed grains. I used a combo of rice and millet. Blond chocolate is overly-sweet white chocolate's grown up sister - toasty, nutty and toffee flavoured. White chocolate skeptics will be convinced. If you roast two bars of chocolate you can save half for snacking, melting over ice cream or folding into cookies. Some super fancy chocolate brands even sell blond chocolate - if you can find some you won't even have to turn on your oven. 

More with blond chocolate: caramelized white chocolate and raspberry financiers

blond chocolate:

1- 2 bars of white chocolate

On a cookie sheet, roast white chocolate at 265°F. Every 5 minutes, take the sheet out and smoosh the chocolate around with a spatula or bench scraper. It will seize and go all grainy and weird, don't worry! That's fine. 

Roast until chocolate is a deep toffee colour, a bit like peanut butter. Cool until hardened. 

 hazelnut & blond chocolate crispies

adapted from the kitchn 

• 6 cups puffed cereal, any kind

• 6 tablespoons butter

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 4 cups mini marshmallows

• 3 tbs praline paste

• 1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped

• 1/3 cup blond chocolate, chopped into chunks

• big pinch flaky salt

Butter a 9"x 13" pan, or line with parchment, if you are too lazy to wash a pan (I am!). 

In a large skillet, toast the cereal on medium heat until it smells fragrant and turns slightly darker in colour. Let cool in a large bowl.

Melt butter in a large pot and on low heat, add marshmallows, stirring constantly until melted. Add praline paste and vanilla and stir until evenly incorporated. Pour marshmallow mixture over toasted cereal and add hazelnuts and chocolate chunks. Stir until cereal is evenly coated in marshmallow goo and press into prepared tin. Sprinkle with flaky salt if you like. 

Let set for about an hour and cut into squares. 

blueberry, white chocolate & pistachio cookies

There are a lot of mediocre cookies in the world. I'm thinking particularly of chocolate chip style cookies - there are a lot of ways to go wrong. I am not a fan of cakey cookies, that don't spread enough and stay high and puffy in the middle. I don't them totally crispy either, they should be thin, just crisp on the outside, but should definitely have chewy, nearly underdone middles. 

These ones, from cookie genius Dorrie Greenspan, really meet all my cookie requirements. They are thin and spready and have wonderfully wrinkly tops. They stay chewy in the middle and have perfectly crisp edges. You can go traditional and use chocolate chips and maybe some walnuts. Or you can try white chocolate, pistachios and blueberries like I did here. Both ways are great. 

You can use dried blueberries if you can't find the freeze dried ones, just don't use fresh or frozen, they'll make the cookies goopy. Freeze dried fruit is kind of hard to find, but you can order it online or check a camping supply store. Feel free to substitute another freeze dried fruit or dried fruit. I think raspberries would be great in these too. 

blueberry, white chocolate & pistachio cookies

adapted from Dorie Greenspan

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature

• 1 cup sugar

• 2/3 cup brown sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 2/3 cup white chocolate, chopped

• 1/2 cup pistachios, toasted and chopped

• 1/2 cup dried or freeze dried blueberries

Preheat oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, until smooth and fluffy. Add sugars and continue to beat until well combined. Add vanilla, and eggs one at a time, mixing well between after each. On low speed, add in flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in chocolate, pistachios and blueberries with a spatula.

Scoop 2 tbs mounds of dough onto baking sheets. They will spread a lot, leave 2 inches between cookies. Bake around 10 minutes, turning sheet halfway through baking.