Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies
NOTE: This is
our take on the classic Tollhouse cookie, thin and crisp around the
edges, thicker and a bit cakier in the middle. The dough can be
baked on ungreased sheets, but lining the sheets with parchment
will make cleanup easier. When the cookies come out of the oven,
they are very soft. Let them cool on the sheets for a minute or two
before transferring them to a rack. Makes about 60
cookies.
21/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still firm
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Adjust oven racks to upper-and lower-middle positions. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside.
2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer set at medium speed. Scrape sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Add eggs, vanilla, and water. Beat until combined, about 40 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl.
3. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, 15 to 20 seconds. Add chocolate chips and nuts and stir until combined.
4. Drop batter by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, spacing pieces of dough about 1 inch apart. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges begin to crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks with wide spatula.
VARIATION:
Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cookies
We like these chocolaty cookies with extra nuts. They won't spread as much in the oven so drop the batter by generous tablespoons onto the baking sheet. We tried both dutched and natural cocoa in this recipe. We thought the dutched cocoa gave the cookies a slightly stronger chocolate flavor, but both types of cocoa worked fine.
Decrease flour to 2 cups and sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder with other dry ingredients. Increase nuts to 11/2 cups. Drop batter by generous tablespoons on cookie sheets and bake 10 to 12 minutes.