Long ago in days of old when magic filled the air I sought to create the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

It was not flat with crispy brown edges, it was not high and dry. No, it had just the right lift, it was moist, chewy and loaded with chocolate chunks.

I bent all of my will on this cookie, much like the Dark Lord bent all his will on the creation of the One Ring.

“What better?” I thought, “What better than a rich, filthy, buttery vanilla-laden cookie loaded with chocolate chunks? Hot and fresh from the oven no less?”

“Whenever I wanted?”

I raised a pointed finger in the air and proclaimed the endeavor right and true and righteous.

I endeavored to summon the kind of chocolate chip cookie I love, I wanted the power to summon it on command.

To me, the perfect chocolate chip cookie is chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside ( but not too crispy ), it has good lift, heft and destroys every taste bud in its path with the right combination of warm melty sugar, vanilla, chocolate, salt and flour… and exceedingly nutritious buttery goodness.

Ingredients:
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened**
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chunks (I usually use 3/4 the bag when its chunks) – Or – about 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of white chocolate chips (walnuts, pecans, almonds, M&M’s or unsalted macadamia nuts optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Measure perfectly, this is the key to consistent quality.

3. Place the softened butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream the ingredients on high speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

4. Add the vanilla and egg and mix on medium speed.

5. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the creamed batter just melds together with the flour mixture.  Over-mixing here will likely flatten the cookies and I’m not a fan of flat chocolate chip cookies. I mix just until the batter is well… mixed, like just a few seconds maybe 15 or so, I even leave it so there is some unmixed flour.

6. Now, using a large spoon or plastic spatula, fold in the chocolate chips and any other ingredients like nuts or M&M’s. Mixing in the chips and such by hand won’t damage or break them up, and by mixing them into the dough now you’ll make up for not mixing the dough quite enough in the last step. Once again, just mix or fold the chips only until they disperse throughout the dough.

Also, some people say you should always melt the butter completely. I’m not one of those people and I’m not quite sure why. Well, on second thought, I might melt the butter for an oatmeal cookie, it saturates the oatmeal and breaks it down a little, but for regular chocolate chip cookies I like to leave the butter out at room temperature or nuke it on power level 40 for less than a minute to soften it. Softened butter in the dough makes it nice and light and fluffy and great for eating spoonfuls of it. The dough stands up better on the cookie sheet too, I like a cookie with good lift and its my belief that the nice fluffy dough eliminates the need for refrigerating the dough for an hour so it stiffens up a bit before it hits the oven.

Bigguns'

7. I scoop the dough into balls with a tablespoon and place them on the baking sheet. One of these days I will get a cookie scoop thing. For now, I don’t mind slight imperfection in the size department. I have a convection oven but I don’t the convection setting for these. I find they come out better for me without it. Repeat with remaining dough, keeping the scoops about 2 inches apart. I shape them just a little bit into roundish 3/4″ thick cylinders. Using your fingers or the back of the spoon, press down on each ball of dough to slightly flatten. You should get about 9 cookies on each sheet if you go big, 12 if you go smaller. One key for me is parchment paper on an aluminum, non-sided baking sheet. Parchment paper rules and it rules hard over cookies, remember that–and never forget it. I suppose those fancy silpat things work too. This way the cookies come clean off the sheet, have perfect looking bottoms and there’s no mess. I re-use the paper for the rest of the batches as it shows little sign of wear and tear.

One last note for this step, I cover the remaining dough with plastic wrap so it stays fresh as can be. It may or may not serve as a shield from would be cookie dough attackers. How uncouth to paw at a perfectly saran wrapped bowl of cookie dough, is what I would say.

8. Bake until golden brown in the lower/middle rack of the oven, for me that is like 12 to 13 minutes for smaller 12 to a sheet cookies and perhaps 14-15 minutes if you go much bigger. Around 11 minutes they should begin to crack and form crevices on the tops. Inside they won’t look done, but they are likely very close since they still cook a bit as they cool. If you truly brown them, which is likely after 15 mins or so in my oven, you’ll end up with hard crunchy cookies after they cool. I’m not a fan of those. I like somewhat firm on the outside and somewhat soft and tender on the inside. Perfect. If I forget to time them I can tell if they’re done by the cracking on top and the slight golden brown on the edges while remaining fairly white-ish in the middle. After you take them out they must cool off for 5 minutes on the pan unless you like hot, drippy ooze.

9. Transfer the cookies with a spatula to wire racks  to cool.

A couple notes:

The climate where you live can have an effect on the cookies and the ingredients can vary–even flour and sugars vary in their moisture content or what not. I once bought some really dry flour that may have been stored in Iraq. This particular recipe works for me in my oven, it may take a little altering depending on your oven. I actually use one stick and one stick minus a tablespoon of butter for regular chocolate chip cookies–it seems to improve that lift I’m after. You can add a half cup of cocoa powder to this recipe, just add it to the flour mixture to create chocolate chocolate chip cookies. If I add the cocoa, I then use the full two sticks of butter. I once saw a recipe with a teaspoon of baking powder in it so I gave it a try, now I use 1/2 teaspoon. The full teaspoon increases the lift marginally and I find it adds too many air bubbles which gives the poor, unsuspecting cookie goer a false impression.

After making these for years I can tell if they are ” just right ” by taking a teaspoon gob of the finished dough (making sure to swipe up a couple chocolate chunks) and tasting it. I taste for the right ratio of flour to sugar, and subtle hints of salt and vanilla. Actually, it’s just an excuse to grab hunks of the raw dough and eat it. You made it so you’re entitled to it.