Chocolate Chip Cookies...Searching for perfection: Part 1

On my quest to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie I plan to try out many recipes. Last night I tried my first and it was a success. The cookies are awesome. I had my friends Jennifer and Kasey as tasters and they both raved about how yummy they were. I was proud of myself.

After reviewing about a dozen recipes I decided to start out easy. I mentioned in my previous post that a friend recommended the Nestle Toll House recipe on the back of their bag of chocolate chips. I thought this was a good place to start so I took the recipe and made a couple of minor changes. First, I used Hershey's chocolate chips instead of Nestles'. I know...I know...it's the Nestle recipe but I was told (by a chocolate lover) that Hershey's has better tasting chocolate so I had to defer to her expertise. Second, I used Pure Mexican Vanilla that my mother recently brought back from her trip to Mexico. Pure Mexican Vanilla comes from Mexican vanilla beans and means that nothing has been added or taken away from the bean. My mom always cooks with Mexican Vanilla and I think it adds a distinct vanilla flavor to any dessert. Third, (because I love vanilla) I added 3 times the required tsp in the recipe. I had read that this gives them a stronger aroma and just makes for an all around better cookie. Fourth, the recipe calls for nuts and I'm not a big fan of nuts in my cookies so I didn't include them. Although I plan on trying several more recipes, this is definitely one I will continue to make over and over. I may try some additional variations but it's a great recipe to start with.

Here's the result. Yummy!



What you don't know is that there almost were no cookies at all because my friend Jennifer and I couldn't stop eating the batter. It was sooo good...


Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 teaspoons pure mexican vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Looking for perfection

Ok, who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies?

I've been obsessed with them lately. Maybe it's because I haven't had a good one in a long time. When I was pregnant my wonderful husband made me 2 chocolate chip cookies (the slice and bake Pillsbury cookie dough ones) every night. How sweet. Even when he didn't want any he would make them for me. I justified needing them because I knew I was supposed to be drinking lots of milk because it was good for the baby. However, I don't like milk unless I have something chocolate-y to go with it. Thus the need for chocolate chip cookies.

I guess this is a good time to mention that before I was pregnant I never even really ate sweets. Don't get me wrong, I would always take a bite of a dessert if someone were to order one after a meal but I never really craved them. I just never really had a sweet tooth. I never understood those people who had to have desserts after every meal...or who always carried a bag of candy in their purse (Kasey :). I just didn't have the craving. I was more of a meat and potatoes girl. I could eat an ultimate cheesburger with chili-cheese fries and still want to share an order of onion rings. I love salty foods. Well, that all changed when I became pregnant. I suddenly had cravings for all things chocolate. I craved chocolate chip cookies, Peanut m&ms, Snickers, brownies and most of all chocolate ice cream.

My FAVORITE ice cream in the world is served at a Houston dessert place called The Chocolate Bar. It's called Creamy Dreamy Chocolate Truffle. It's dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate truffle chunks in it. YUMMY! I drug my husband there several times a week throughout the entire pregnancy. We finally started buying pint-sized containers so we wouldn't have to go back every other day. We went so much that the guy behind the counter actually told us that we should look into purchasing one of the actual tub containers of ice cream. Yes, the ones that they scoop the ice cream out of! I was mortified. I sent Andrew back alone to get my ice cream after that (Again, what a great husband). He said that he would actually hang around the store and wait until the same check-out guy was helping someone else so as to avoid embarrassment. Too funny! All of those who know me also know that I'm a boring orderer. What I mean is that I order the same thing at every restaurant I go to. If I find something I like I always get it. If it ain't broke...ya know?

I digress...the whole point of this post is that I've been craving really good chocolate chip cookies. Now the old me would just run out to the store and buy my Pillsbury cookie dough cookies and be done with it. However, because I'm on a mission to domesticate myself, I figured I should try to make my own homemade chocolate chip cookies. Shouldn't every mom know how to make really good cookies? Isn't that like a requirement for a good mom?

The problem is that I'm pretty picky when it comes to what I like in a chocolate chip cookie. I don't want them too thin but I don't want them thick either. I also do not like crisp cookies. I want them gooey--but not so gooey that they fall apart when you pick them up. Understand? So, I'm on a quest to find the recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie (perfect for me anyways).

A friend of mine suggested today that I try out the Nestle Toll House recipe (the one on the chocolate chip package). She said they were her favorite. I may try it out but it seems kind of commercial. I'm looking for something a little different. I want to uncover someone's great-grandmother's recipe that is just out of this world. I am actually planning on making about 3 or 4 batches of cookies this week. My husband's out of town so what else do I have to do?

If you have any good recipes, please send them along. I'd love to try them!