The One and Only Chocolate Chip Cookie

People are incredibly particular about their chocolate chip cookies. They grow up with the cookies that one of their parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, neighbor, or friend makes and it quickly becomes their favorite. Any deviation and they just aren't the same. The technique that leads to my idea of a chocolate chip cookie might make some baking purists gasp, but to me, the results are undeniably worth-it. My ideal chocolate chip cookie is relatively flat. It's flat enough the chocolate chips poke their way up through the cookie. This gives it a slight melt-in-your-mouth crunch when you bit into it, but leads to a soft, gooey center. My secret: melted butter. Why? Because I'm impatient.

As Hannah Hart from My Drunk Kitchen once said, "Warm butter 'til soft, not melted [...] Why would you say that: warm your butter up somehow, but don't melt it? Whose going to finish that sentence? Nobody." Exactly. In middle school and high school, I made chocolate chip cookies all of the time. Mine always turned out superior to my mom's. Why? Because I was impatient. I stuck my butter in the microwave to soften it, resulting in partially melted butter. She left her sticks of butter on top of the stove all day and waited to make her cookies until the butter was soft. In this case, impatience wins
After my 3 year gluten-free stint, I lost my ability to make delicious chocolate chip cookies. My trusty recipe failed me. I was devastated. Here I was, a life of gluteny goodness before me lacking the perfect chocolate chip cookie. It simply wouldn't do. After a bit of trial and error, I realized the butter was the problem. Somehow, college made me more patient. I left my sticks of butter on the stove and waited to bake cookies until they were soft. Never again friends, never again. Melting the butter leads to a more buttery cookie.

Objective
Recreate the soft, chewy, yet melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookies I was once able to make. Technique adapted from the Nestlé TOLL HOUSE Recipe.

Materials
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 to 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 to 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Lightly grease a cookie sheet, line a baking sheet with parchment or (better yet) set aside a pre-seasoned baking stone.
2. Put the butter in a bowl and microwave it about 30 seconds or until it's mostly melted. Beat the butter and sugars until thoroughly mixed.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla. Beat until incorporated.
4. Add the baking soda, salt and flour. Beat until just mixed.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
6. Roll the dough into consistently shaped balls (use about one tablespoon dough for each cookie).
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Take the cookies out of the oven when the edges are just starting to brown and the centers are still doughy (see photo). Do not over-bake or you will end up with dry, crispy cookies (but if you're into that, go ahead over-bake them).
8. Cool on the cookie sheet 2 to 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.


Results
Perfection! The cookies are firm but they maintain the gooey center and slight melt-in-your mouth crunch.

Discussion and Future Directions
To give you a fair warning, these cookies will come out flat with chocolate chips poking out of the top. They will probably break apart in the middle when you take them off of the cookie sheet. But, don't worry. While they cool, they will firm up and the breakage won't matter. They probably won't be perfectly circular because they'll mush up a little bit when you transfer them. They might not be beautiful, but as long as they taste good, who is going to complain? I know that everyone has a different opinion of what makes a great chocolate chip cookie, but if you like them slightly under-baked with a melt-in-your mouth feel, I promise that this recipe won't let you down (unless you over-bake them). As an aside, make sure you have plenty of milk on hand!


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