After I wrote yesterday’s blog about Hershey’s chocolate and my girls’ adventure at the Hershey Hotel, it made me want to make a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I have tried many recipes over the years, but now this is the only one I make. First of all, don’t change a thing in the recipe or make substitutions – and follow directions exactly. You don’t want to mess with this recipe. They are huge cookies, but don’t try to make them smaller. The outside is slightly firm and the inside is ooey-gooey wonderful. You must have a good mixer with a big bowl. It makes a lot of dough, which by the way, if you are a raw cookie dough fan, this is the one to eat. And fair warning – they are completely addictive, which means you will either hate me or love me forever!
FAVORITE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
2 sticks best quality unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey is my favorite)
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
12 ounce package chocolate chunks
12 ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts (I toast walnut halves in the oven, cool, and chop very coarsely)
1. In the large bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and eggs until well blended. Mix in soda, salt, and vanilla. Blend in flour until incorporated.
2. Mix in chips, one package at a time. Mix in nuts. Cover and refrigerate dough at least a couple hours, but overnight is even better.
3. When ready to bake, line large baking sheets with parchment paper. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
4. Measure batter in slightly heaping 1/3-cup measuring cups and turn out onto parchment-lined baking sheets about 3 inches apart. Flatten dough very slightly with your hand.
5. Bake cookies for 12-13 minutes – do not overbake! Dough will look slightly underdone in the center. Remove from oven and let cookies sit on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool. Makes about 20 big cookies (depending on how much dough you eat first!)
Almost forgot! Look what was waiting for the girls in their room at The Hershey Hotel:
What are chocolate chunks? Are they semi-sweet, dark or what kind of chocolate. I use a Mrs. Field’s recipe–but think I’m going to try yours. Your picture looks like what mine look like–slightly firm on the outside, gooey on the inside.
Barb, I use semisweet chocolate chunks. They are at Sunset, Jewel, and Dominick’s. There are several brands, but the one I find most frequently is Nestle’s. Another alternative would be to chop up whole chocolate into chunk-sized pieces of the same amount if you can’t find them in bags. Or even those bite-sized individually wrapped Dove chocolates could be made into smaller chunks. I wouldn’t use milk chocolate chunks because there is already one bag of those in the recipe and 2 bags of milk chocolate would be too gooey, but bittersweet would work – in fact, I would use that if I could find them. If you find bittersweet chunks anywhere, let me know! I should look at Woodman’s in Kenosha. That store has everything.
Thanks Debbie–I should look at Garden Fresh Market in Mundelein–they have many different items. If I find them I will let you know.
Yes! Garden Fresh has a lot of different items. Good idea!