My Guilty Indulgence: The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

I've been a really bad girl. I've been craving for my favorite chocolate chip cookies for the past two weeks so I made a batch of crispy ones Saturday and a batch of chewy ones yesterday. Although I cut back on the sugar and made them whole wheat, this cookie is a really big treat since I don't normally use this much sugar in a baked good. If you decide to make these, treat these as BIG treat and try not to have too many.

With Christmas around the corner and because I love these cookies, I want to share this personal favorite with you. After this, I will continue to bake with very limited or no sugar. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. I'll be featuring the chewy version, but they can be crispy too if you add one to two minutes to the bake time. 

The recipes is to make chewy chocolate chips cookies but can easily be made crispy if baked for too long. I'm featuring this chocolate chip recipe version since most of all my crispy chocolate chips were gone before I could take any pictures of it. 

I adapted this recipe from Alton Brown, one of my favorite person whom my husband and I would love to meet. You may known him as the emcc for Iron Chef America, and the host for Good Eats. Alton is like a walking encyclopedia. He is amazingly knowledgeable in the science of cooking, baking, and facts about most ingredients out there. I've never had any problems with his recipes and hope you won't either, especially this one!

Modifications: I made half the batch and was able to bake about two and a half dozen cookies. My cookies were smaller than what Alton instructed since his recommended sized cookie would be big enough for a few people. I omitted granulated sugar, included molasses, replaced white bread flour for white whole wheat flour.

Taste: This isn't your typical chocolate chip cookie. This cookie is very flavorful because of the subtle hint of molasses and the brown sugar. These sweeteners pairs very nicely with the light nutty flavor of the whole wheat flour. Actually, it goes so well that my friends and husband didn't even know that they were eating a whole wheat cookie. And of course the dark chocolate chips made this cookie complete!

Texture: I got cookies that were very chewy in the middle and cookies that were less chewy and more crispy. This variation is dependent on the baking time. In step 7 of the methods section, I describe the different baking times I used for dark and light colored baking sheets. Below is an image of a crisper cookie. Both textures were enjoyed by me and my husband. 

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup or 4 ounces)
1 cup + 2 tablespoons white wheat flour (6 ounces)
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoon molasses*
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (4 ounces)
1 egg*
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk (½ ounce any type & kind)
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of your favorite type of chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli's Dark Chips (6 ounces)*

*Egg & Molasses: I kept the amount of egg used the same even though I halved the batch. Because I am using whole wheat flour instead of regular white flour, I need more moisture to make chewy and not dry cookies. The molasses and egg will help make it chewy and moist. 
*Chocolate: I chopped my chocolate chips since they were quite large. You don't need to do this. 

Method:
1. Melt the butter in a medium bowl in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly. 

2. Sift flour, salt, baking soda into a separate clean bowl. In a separate container, whisk the whole egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract together. 

3. Add brown sugar and molasses to the butter and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes with a handheld mixer or stand mixer. Reduce the speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until everything is well combined. It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds. 

4. Slowly integrate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stop your mixture to scrape down sides of bowl if needed. Once flour is combined, add the chocolate chips. Hand stir in the chips or use the slowest setting of your mixer. Chill the dough for 45 minutes. If you chill the dough for longer, you will need to increase the baking time. 

5. Preheat oven to 375F and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.  I didn't grease my two non-stick baking sheets. You can grease yours if you wish or use parchment paper to line them. 

6. With a tablespoon, use it to scoop and measure out the amount of dough to drop onto the baking sheet. There is no need to flatten the dough on the baking sheet. Give a lot room for the dough to spread. Space each piece of dough at least 2 inches apart.

7. Baking time will vary and be dependent on the type of cookie sheet you use (color, metal, and how it is made). Keep a close watch on your cookies and take them out when the edges are browned and center looks gooey. I've been afraid of the gooey look in the past and have baked them for longer. It will result in crispy cookies. You may need to play with the baking time.  Below is my results when using a dark and light colored baking sheet.  

• Dark colored baking sheet: I knew that cookies will bake and brown more easily with my dark colored baking sheets because it heats up more quickly and retains heat longer. I baked the cookies for 7 minutes and they were more crispy than chewy. I used this sheet again and reduced the baking time to 6 minutes. These cookies were more chewy. I will probably reduce the baking time by 30 seconds to one minute for an even more chewy cookie, like the ones I got with the light colored baking sheet.

• Light colored baking sheet: This baking sheet is thicker and very light in color so cookies will bake more slowly on this sheet. I baked cookies on this sheet for 7 minutes. They were perfectly chewy in the center upon cooling. 

8. Remove baking sheets from oven. slide cookies onto cooling rack and try to wait 5 minutes before enjoying.