Thick & Chewy

For a white elephant gift exchange recently, there was a $5 limit--that’s almost impossible! I went to the thrift store and bought a plain white cookie jar for $3 and baked chocolate chip cookies to fill it. It was a big hit.

I know that it’s sacrilege to say, but I don’t use the standard Toll House recipe. There is a recipe for Thick & Chewy Cookies in the March 2003 issue of Fine Cooking, which I like better. The key is a hot oven and cold butter and eggs, so it doesn’t have time to melt too much and become runny. I also added dried cherries because cherries and chocolate are the perfect combination.

Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/3 cup unsalted butter, cold

1 ½ cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, cold

1 T vanilla extract

3 ¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 ¼ t table salt

1 t baking soda

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat together butter and both sugars, start low and work your way up to high, beat about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat on low, until blended. Beat on high about 1 minute. Scrape down bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking soda. Add this to the butter mixture, blend. The dough will be stiff. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop rounded teaspoons of dough about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Refrigerate unused dough.

Bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.

Let cookie sheets cool completely before baking remaining dough.