The classic chocolate chip cookies

I really meant it when I thought a couple of months back that there will be a spate of ‘cookie’ posts on this blog. The reason being that I had got a copy of Williams Sonoma’s Cookie collection (delighted to win it for MLLA-13 hosted by Sunshine Mom) and was itching to start trying each of the recipes out one by one. Although I have made a few, I never got down to post about them, my main excuse being the lack of ‘good’ photographs. It would have been the same for this as well, if I hadn't got a chance to make them again during the Christmas week. The earlier attempt, my first one at these much loved cookies, was a big hit and all the cookies were gone before I could recharge the batteries of my camera. So when the opportunity presented for the cookies to be made again, I jumped at it and this time made sure that I had clicked at least a few snaps before I let anyone even look at these cookies :)

Coming back to the book, it is a great collection of all the popular cookies, arranged  very well into categories such as Classic, Party cookies, Holiday cookies, decorated cookies etc. One of the best things about the recipes is that they give the list of ingredients with their weight as well the cup measurements which saves the additional step of converting from weight to volume. I have tried some other recipes from the book and they have come out really well too.

Both GM and our daughter S, are very brand conscious. Now what has that got to do with the cookies you ask.Well, while GM will like any of the Marks & Spencer's product with his eyes closed, S goes a step further and will eat only those cookies, made fresh in their bakery. So it was sort of a ritual for quite some time that whenever I went into the stores, I would religiously get her the chocolate chip cookies from there. When I made them for the first time & S tasted it, she asked me “Mummy when did you go to Marks & Spencer's?” and that was enough for me to authenticate this recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 30

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup Plain flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, Milk or white

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C. Prepare two baking sheets lined with baking paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and keep aside.

Take the butter in a mixing bowl and cream the butter using an electric mixer or whisk by hand till it gets fluffy and pale. Add both the sugars and continue to mix till the mixture is no longer grainy to touch. Keep scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula while mixing.

Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix on low speed.

Add the flour mixture and combine everything with a wooden spoon until just blended. Add the chocolate chips and mix gently.

Drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets with the help of a spoon or shape into 1 inch balls by dampening your hands. Place the cookies at least 2 inches apart as the dough will spread while baking.

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, till the edges start to brown. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for sometime on the sheet and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely before storing them into an air tight container.

My Notes: These cookies are a perfect combination of crunchy and chewy. Although the recipe says it makes 4 dozen cookies, I could get about 30-32 medium ones.

There was one thing in the recipe which had me baffled though. The quantity of flour mentioned was 220 gm in weight and 1 1/3 cup in volume. The conversion does not work out the same, although the conversion for the other ingredients was spot on. I almost increased the quantity of the flour. But then I decided to stick to the volume measurement and cookies came out great. A printing mistake perhaps?

Also I had some Milk Chocolate chips and some white ones, so I mixed both of them.