Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe may seem like a pain, but it produces cookies with a toffee-flavored, rich dough. They'll be a little flat, but the crispy edges and chewy middles make up for it easily.

Recipe based on Cook's Illustrated "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe
Makes about 20 cookies
Time to prepare: 45 minutes

• 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 14 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (white)
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (or a little less of light brown sugar with 1 tablespoon molasses)
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (preferably 60% cocoa content Ghirardelli chips)

Instructions

1. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until melted. Continue cooking, swirling the pan, until the butter is golden brown and has a nutty aroma.
2. Remove the skillet from heat, and transfer butter to a heat-proof bowl (like the bowl of your mixer). Stir in the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter until melted.
3. While butter cools, use a separate bowl and whisk together the flour and baking soda
4. To the butter mixture: add both sugars, salt, and vanilla and whisk until incorporated (won't be very smooth)
5. To the butter mixture: add the egg and yolk and mix until the mixture is smooth with no lumps of sugar remaining
6. Let the butter mixture stand for 3 minutes, then mix for another 30 seconds. Repeat.
7. Using a spoon or spatula, mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture until just combined
8. Stir in the chocolate chips
9. Place the dough in the fridge, and set the oven to 375 degrees
10. When the oven is preheated, take out the dough, and scoop out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or silpat); each cookie should be 2 to 3 tablespoons - the size of a golf ball or a little less; leave 2 inches space between each cookie; about 8 will fit on a full sized baking sheet
11. Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the pan, then for an additional 5 - 8 minutes - until the edges are just golden and the middles are still puffy
12. Transfer baking sheet to a cooling rack, and allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes before moving off the sheet directly onto the rack

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