Let’s be honest

Chocolate chip cookies are always good.

But have you ever tasted a warm chocolate chip cookie that’s so rich, chewy and chocolaty?

And somehow, those cookies always happens to be a bakery style cookie.

Which also means you have to make a trip to the bakery, get your car parked, got off the car and only to
find out that it is sold out.

What a waste of time for nothing!

Well I’m here to save your trip to the bakery with ingredients that are always lying around your pantry
that’s eager to be used. While I’m at it, I will also be sneaking some tricks to achieve the ultimate
chocolate chip cookie.

All you really need for cookies are sugar, flour, fat, eggs and of course chocolate excluding flavors
enhancer.

With this, we begin with butter. Nothing beats butter when it comes to flavor. But let’s take a step
further and brown the butter. To do so, simply cook your butter on a stovetop until it turns into a brown
and nutty. One of the tell tale is to see brown bits at the bottom of the pot. After it is browned, set aside
and cool COMPLETELY to room temperature. I could not emphasize more, when I said completely I
mean completely. One way to tell is to stick your finger in the browned butter and you will feel nothing
as the temperature is the same as yours.

Moving on to creaming butter and sugar. A combination of brown sugar and white sugar are used.
Brown sugar contained molasses that will produce chewier cookies while white sugar have no molasses
which gives us the crunch. Simply dump the sugar mixture into the bowl of browned, cooled butter and
preferably cream it using a hand mixer. You can always cream it by hand but a lot of elbow grease is
needed. You may asked. How long should I cream my butter mixture? I would not tell you the length of
time but I would tell you what you should look for. Basically, you have to whip it so much that the butter
mixture turns pale in color from brown. Not to mention, fluffiness. Do not stop when the butter mixture
it’s still browned and gooey.

The next step would be adding eggs into the butter mixture for structure. An egg and an egg yolk would
do the job. An Extra egg yolk increases richness. Incorporate just enough for the eggs and butter mixture
to get to know each other. At this point, optionally, you could add in flavor enhancers such as vanilla
extract and coffee powder. Everything taste better with a dash of vanilla extract. I promise it won’t
overpower anything. As for coffee, it brings out the chocolate aroma more.

After everything is incorporated, shift in flour, bread flour, baking soda and baking powder. So why
bread flour? Bread flour has more gluten which gives us chewier cookies. Differences between baking
soda and baking powder? Baking soda helps spread the cookie while baking powder ensure the cookie
to be puffy enough. Remember to NEVER, whip in the flour into the mixture. Use a spatula to FOLD in
the flour until just combine. Overmixing the dough will harden the cookie as a result.

Lastly, pour in as much amount of chocolate as you want into the dough and remember to FOLD it in
instead of vigorously mixing it. So you may asked, how do I tell if the cookie dough was a success. See, as
long as you can roll your dough into little balls without sticking to your hands like a playdough. You’ve
succeeded. Remember before I had mentioned to really cool your browned butter to room temperature,
this is where It will be affected. If the butter was even a little warm, the dough would be a greasy mess.

It is advised to roll your cookie dough into balls and refrigerate overnight for more flavors. Or you could
just bake it off at 180D or 357F for 15 minutes. For you information, these cookie dough can live happily
in your freezer for up to 3 months. Aging your cookie dough will develop more intense flavors but before
baking, do thaw the dough for consistent results.

Remember how I said brown sugar brings chewier cookie, so what I you have a different preferences.
You might like a good store bought crumbly cookie. No sweat! Simply change the ratio of brown sugar to
white sugar where white sugar should have a higher ratio.

Thank you for listening. With this recipe, you just have to spare one day to make it and you don’t even
have to bother hitting the bakery anymore. I hope you get to have a cookie whenever you want. Not just
any cookie but a GOOD cookie.