My new favorite chocolate chip cookie

I’ve always shied away from making chocolate chip cookies. I don’t really know why as they are such a standard in America. But it could be because they are such a landmark cookie, so simply yet so difficult to get absolutely perfect. It starts with people having different ideas of what a perfect chocolate chip cookie is, some like them thick and dense, or chewy with crisp edges and a few even prefer a cakey cookie. Some like dark chocolate and some like milk chocolate. Nuts or no nuts. Chips or chunks. The variations on this standard cookie go on and on, and I’ve never found a recipe I thought was absolutely perfect.

Actually that’s not true. There is one recipe, the Stars Desserts chocolate chip cookie, that I think is absolutely perfect; it produces a light buttery cookie with a slight, soft chew in the middle and caramel note — from a full tablespoon vanilla — to accompany the chocolate chips. When my mom makes them that is. I’ve tried making them a couple times and have never achieved perfection, but my mom never failed to pull beautiful cookies out of the oven right as I was rushing out the door to high school. That is one of the many things I miss about living at home, I mean who wouldn’t kill for freshly baked cookies on your way to your 11 a.m. class?

But I’m not really here to complain about my lack of chocolate chip cookie making skills. In fact, I think I’ve finally found my match. And it comes in the form of whole wheat flour and semi sweet chocolate chunks, all courtesy of Kim of Good to the Grain. These cookies seriously look exactly like the cookies photographed in the book, with lots of melted chocolate and a crackly top. Make them big, like coffee shop sized. I swear they’re better that way.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Kim Boyce, Good to the Grain

Dry mix:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

Wet mix:
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, sifting and then pouring any bits back into the bowl. Cream the butter and sugars in a bowl until just blended. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is combined. Add the vanilla. Add the flour mixture and blend until the flour is barely combined. Add the chocolate to the batter all at once. Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving about 3 inches between them. Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes or until the cookies are evenly dark brown (I took some out when they were golden). Transfer the cookies, still on the parchment, to the counter to cool.

And eat, because whole wheat flour is good for you right?

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