Our Martha, who art in Connecticut, hallowed be thy name….
I’ve been making the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe pretty much my entire life, and recently I started wondering if it really is the best. After I made them in bar form back around the holidays, I decided I was bored and the next time I made them I’d shake things up. So this will hopefully become a series of attempts to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. The criteria: must be moist, buttery, not too much chocolate, and still tasty on days 2 and 3.
This first attempt to go outside my cookie comfort zone is a Martha Stewart recipe. I do love Martha, and after a friend from grad school posted on Facebook that this was the best cookie recipe she’d ever made, period, I decided to start with these.
And they’re good. Really good. So good that even though they weren’t as soft and chewy as I’d like, I’m still eating them 3 days later. Fr some reason, the cookies just would not bake in my oven. The recipe says bake for 8-10 minutes, and mine took a good 12+ to bake through. I’m sure this changed the desired texture and consistency, and I honestly don’t know why. Maybe my butter was too soft, or the oven rack wasn’t quite right. At any rate, they are delicious regardless of changes to texture. I was apparently so excited about making them and consuming them that every picture I took is blurry. So forgive the artful shots. But these are much nicer than the Toll House cookies, and the biggest difference I see is less granulated sugar and more brown sugar. Adam thought these were the greatest thing since sliced bread, so they’ll be a hard act to beat.
Martha’s Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.