(Not just any) Chocolate Chip Cookies - Belle Année
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(Not just any) Chocolate Chip Cookies

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chocolate chip cookieIf you really think about it I bet you perform way more selfless acts than you realize.  Picking up a trinket for a friend because you know she’d like it.  Asking your doorman if he’d like a cup of coffee when you go out.   Helping a neighbor by putting yourself on their child’s emergency call list.  Giving a co-worker the benefit of your experience cooking, driving or best apps for their iPhone.  Opening the door for a parent with a small child.  These are all little things but they add up to being a good friend and a kind person.

Sometimes, though, you do things for friends because they post messages like this on your Facebook homepage:

 If you don’t give up that damn cookie recipe I’m coming to your house laying down on your front porch and throwing a massive temper tantrum with whining, kicking abandon…

Or maybe they reply with this:

 I can get into her personal belongings – let’s take embarrassing photos of ourselves wearing her things in her rooms & post them all over the internet until she gives up the ghost!

 And then you give in, well, because you love them but you are also just the teeniest bit convinced that they will actually do what they are threatening to do.

Chocolate ButtonsSo it is in that spirit of sharing and caring (and fear) that I bring you this chocolate chip recipe.   Now, I didn’t come across this easily and it is not just Nestle Toll House with a masque and some frilly bloomers.  No, this is a constructed-from-stratch-years-in-the-making-foolproof-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe.  

Here is why it is special:  Until I put this recipe together I could not make cookies.  None.  No recipe.  No instructions.  No packet worked for me.  I could not do it.  This probably isn’t a unique issue but for someone for whom the kitchen is a refuge, someone who regularly churns out Beef Wellington, cakes, quiches, gumbo and homemade pasta…. this was a BFD.  How could I not make something as simple as cookies?   But it was true and remained so until about a year ago.   I had tried and failed so many times that I just accepted that as part of my being, as much as I have blonde hair (cough) and am 5’7 (in heels), I was never going to be able to bake cookies.

chocolate chip cookie 1

 

But one day I decided I’d had enough.  There had to be a reason I kept screwing up cookies.  There must be a scientific explanation for what was going wrong.  I started the research.  Everywhere.  Online.  Asking my friends who did not share this deficiency.  Reading magazines. Trying different recipes.  Then, one glorious day, I came across a box of $20 Vosges Chocolate Chip Cookie mix at Whole Foods in Denver and guess what?  The cookies actually worked!  I had done it!  It didn’t matter that it was from a mix.  It had worked for me!  The curse was broken!  

 

chocolate chip cookie 2

 

I set out to recreate the Vosges recipe and combine it with all of the research I had done.  I put it all together to create my very own, never fail, heart stoppingly good chocolate chip cookie recipe.  And that is how you ended up with the world’s best chocolate chip cookie recipe in front of you today.  A history of cooking.  A tireless quest to create a foolproof cookies recipe.  A few threats from friends.  That’s all it took.  Read the notes.  They are important.  

xoxo

(NOT JUST ANY) CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
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Ingredients
  1. 3 cups (475g) all-purpose flour
  2. 1 1/2 (8g) teaspoons baking soda
  3. 1 1/2 (9g) teaspoons salt
  4. 2 sticks (1 cup, 227g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
  5. 1 1/2 (300g) cups packed light brown sugar
  6. 1 (215g) cup granulated sugar
  7. 3 large eggs
  8. 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  9. 12 oz (380g) of chocolate “buttons” (I prefer 12 oz of bittersweet but you could probably mix in some milk chocolate or even some white chocolate. But make sure to use chocolate buttons – NOT chocolate chips.)
Instructions
  1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
  2. Pour melted butter and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer and mix at high speed for 2-3 minutes.
  3. Lightly beat 1 egg with a fork in a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons of it plus 2 remaining whole eggs to the butter mixture, beating with mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla.
  4. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour mixture until just blended.
  5. Add chocolate, turn speed up to medium and let it whack the chocolate buttons around for a minute or so.
  6. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and then cover and refrigerate the batter for 2 hours (don't skip this part!). Preheat oven to 375 F (190C). Put oven rack in middle of oven.
  7. Using a 1 1/2T scoop, scoop one mound for each cookie onto a parchment lined cookie tray. Don’t try to fit more than 6 on a tray. After you have 6 scoops, go back and add another scoop directly on top of each existing scoop and slightly mush it down. It should look a little like a melted snowman.
  8. Bake 11-13 minutes and cool on a cooling rack.
  9. Get fat.
Notes
  1. These cookies somehow defy the physics of chocolate chip cookies. They come out thin yet gooey. And the chocolate stays runny for days. I no longer care that I can’t make Nestle Toll House cookies. This is all I need for the rest of my life.
Belle Année https://belleannee.com/

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Jessica Bride

I am a Notting Hill based lifestyle writer and Instagrammer. My reason for being is my family plus a combination of food + travel + art + life between London and New Orleans. Find me at @belleannee or covering arts & culture for @London.

4 Comments
  • Bill

    June 6, 2014 at 14:08 Reply

    I’m so jealous I didn’t come up with this recipe, Jessica. I can tell from the photos that these would become my most favorite cookies! Thanks for sharing your prized recipe!!

    • jessica

      June 6, 2014 at 14:28 Reply

      I want to see pictures when you make it! xoxo

  • Christie

    June 8, 2014 at 03:48 Reply

    This is the best! I am so excited to have a chocolate chip recipe that I can depend on! I am always changing my version…and sometimes they’re good…other times not so good…never that great the next day. But these I KNOW will be fabulous (because you have very high standards), and will be making them July 15. For you know who. And will be texting you a picture:)

    • jessica

      June 8, 2014 at 14:21 Reply

      Christie: I accept cookie donations shipped to London! xoxo

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