Wednesday, June 08, 2005

the best chocolate chip cookies ever

¾ cup butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
2 oz solid chocolate
¾ cup chopped pecans

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat to combine.

In a food processor fitted with a blade attachment, blend 1 cup of the oatmeal into a coarse powder. In a large bowl whisk together flour, all of the oatmeal, baking soda and baking powder. Add dry mixture, 1 cup at a time, to butter mixture, beating to combine.

Using a serrated knife, finely shave solid chocolate. Add, along with chocolate chips and pecans, to cookie batter and combine. Chill for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Form 1oz balls of cookie dough (about the size of golf balls) and place on a Silpat-lined baking sheet (do not press down). Bake for 10 minutes. Repeat with remaining cookies. Let cool for a few minutes before removing cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes: Chilling the dough keeps the cookies from spreading out too much during baking. Also, resist the urge to let the cookies bake a few minutes longer. They’ll continue to cook for awhile once out of the oven, and will be soft and chewy as a result of not over-baking. If you really don’t think they’re done after 10 minutes, it might be a good idea to test the temperature of your oven. And only ever use good quality chocolate which contains both cocoa butter and cocoa liqueur.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Darcie
I'm always on the lookout for cookie recipes and this one caught my eye because of the Pampered Chef mini serving spatula photograped with the cookies. I'm a Pampered Chef consultant. Anyways, my cookies did not spread much even though I did not chill it and as a result, I found them a bit on the hard and dry side. I'll try them again and hope for some different results.

darcie said...

Try baking the cookies for a few fewer minutes (you'll have to judge for yourself). Alternately, check your oven temperature with a thermometer, and maybe turn it down a bit. If the cookies are over-baked even a little, they loose their chewy texture. So, bake until they're just barely golden,even if they seem slightly underbaked as they will continue to bake for a few minutes once out of the oven.

On an aside, I love my Pampered Chef mini spatula, particularly for its sharp front edge which slides under cakes and pies very easily.

darcie said...

One more thought. The baking time for the recipe was based on the dough being chilled. If it was closer to room temperature, it may have baked more quickly.

Anonymous said...

I sure hope Jean checks this again, because I tried the cookies and added another 1/4 cup of butter. It makes all the differenceE!

Anonymous said...

Darcie,
I made these cookies from the recipe you printed in your newspaper column. I already have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe, but you raved about these, so...
I thought it was a lot of work to shave the chocolate (messy, too, though I enjoyed licking the melted chocolate off my hands) and to grind the oats, and as Jean mentioned, the cookies were hard, almost biscotti-like. I prefer my "Positively the Absolute Best Chocolate Chip Cookies" that I also got from a magazine. Want a bake-off?

PS I've never posted a comment on this site because I never knew about this site until I read your last column.

darcie said...

What! How? I'm going to spend some time in the kitchen to see if I can figure this out. Amount of butter is first on my test list. Watch for the results in an upcoming column.

Anonymous said...

Having tasted (but not baked myself) said chocolate chip cookie I can unabashedly attest that these are the best - THE best - any kind of cookie to ever get pushed past my gob. They were not crunchy, but rather melt in your mouth scrumdillyicious. Hit me baby one more time!