Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies

My apologies for this sweet recipe in the middle of resolution get down to business time, but I had a craving, tried to ignore it and lost the battle - mostly because I found these...

I'm a sucker for anything chocolate and peanut butter.

I get e-mails from you guys every so often and the two most frequent questions I get are "Why didn't ______ turn out for me?" and "How do you eat all those sweets and still stay thin?".  First of all - it's hard for me to ever tell  you what went wrong with a recipe you tried to make if I wasn't there in your kitchen cooking with you. However, I do have a few tips for you on how to make really awesome cookies that turn out every time. Second of all - just because a recipe makes 5 dozen cookies, doesn't mean that I bake all 5 dozen and leave them out on my counter for a week. That would be a diet disaster.

Tips for the perfect cookie:

• Pull out all of your ingredients at least an hour ahead of time. I have noticed more and more that thing turn out better when they are room temperature to start (yes, even the eggs)
• Never mix the baking powder and baking soda with the dry ingredients. Yes I know they are dry ingredients, but they should be mixed with the wet ingredients so they have time to activate and are thoroughly mixed into the dough
• Mix your chocolate chips into the batter before you mix your flour mixture in
• Let your cookie sheet cool down before you line it with more cookies and bake them
• Preheat your oven last, which will force you to let your cookie dough chill in the fridge for a few minutes before scooping and baking

Ingredients:

Makes about five dozen cookies

1¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

1⅔ cups bread flour

1¼ teaspoons baking soda

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons salt (I used Kosher)

2½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1¼ cups packed dark brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ bags of your favorite chocolate chips, mint chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, etc.

1. Measure your cake flour, bread flour and salt and pour into a mixing bowl together. Run a fork or a whisk through it to make sure it's well combine.
2. In your mixer, beat together your butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Then add your eggs, vanilla, baking soda and baking powder. Mix together until well combine.
3. Next you should add in your chocolate baking chips - whatever kind you choose - and using your paddle attachment mix together for about a minute.
4. At this point I take the mixer out of the equation - Using a spatula, mix the flour mixture into the wet mixture - do this a little bit at a time. Make sure to get the flour all the way to the bottom . Once combine cover and put in the fridge.
5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
6. When the oven is preheated, use a melon baller and scoop out 1 inch cookies. Line your baking sheet with a dozen cookies and bake for about 10-15 minutes. Mine were done in about 12 minutes.

Below: After I bake about a dozen cookies, I turn the oven off, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and scoop out the remainder of the dough. I line the cookie sheet pretty tightly. Then I cover with saran wrap and place the sheet in the freezer. Freeze for about two hours or until firm. Take them out and place the balls of dough in a labeled ziplock bag - I usually write the type of cookie, baking temp and baking time. This way, next week after my husband and I have eaten all of the cookies on the counter I can pull out two and bake just enough to satisfy my craving and move on. Bonus: You have company that decides to come over last minute, you have fresh baked cookies on the table and you look like a pro!