Eating: The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love cookies of all kinds, but there is always a special place in my heart for chocolate chip.  When I was little, I took drawing and painting classes at a little studio down the street from my school.  On Wednesdays, school got out at 12:30 and my friends and I would grab our art bins and newsprint pads and make the short walk together.  I would beg my mom to give me a dollar for a treat before class.  Some kids bought candy at the corner market, but I saved my dollar for a cookie from the bakery.  The cookies they sold are the best I've ever had.  They had a hearty, nutty, almost healthy taste to them, and I should mention they were enormous.  Throughout my baking life I have tweaked and tested many recipes in attempts to recreate this childhood cookie, here is the result.



The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda (not pictured)
1 tsp salt (not pictured)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla (not pictured)
1 cup pecans, chopped fine
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 325.
2. Combine flours, salt and baking soda in a medium size bowl.  Set aside.
3.  Cream butter and both sugars together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, mix until combined.
4.  Add dry ingredients, mix well.
5.  Stir in pecans and chocolate chips.
6.  Use an ice cream scoop to portion dough onto cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches between.  Wet fingers and gently pat down each scoop.
7.  Bake 15 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.
8.  Transfer to rack to cool.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

One of the secrets of this recipe is a blend of all purpose and whole wheat flours.  The whole wheat gives the cookie and rich and hearty taste, while the all purpose keeps the texture from getting too gritty.

The other secret is the pecans.  The trick is to chop them up fine.  The finely chopped pecans become almost another flour, flavoring the whole cookie with nutty goodness.

Finally the portions make all the difference.  When I was telling a friend about this recipe she asked, "crispy or chewy?"  Isn't this the everlasting debate?  But with a cookie this size, you get the best of both worlds.  Crispy crunchy edges, and a soft chewy center.  An ice cream scoop makes the perfect portions, but don't forget to pat them down or the centers won't cook through.  If you want to use this recipe for normal cookies, up the oven temperature to 350 and half the baking time.  But who would want to do that?

There they are, ready to be enjoyed!  I should note that this is a very forgiving recipe.  I was pretty out of it when baking these, first I left out ingredients and then I had to add them in the wrong order.  But they still turned out great!