My Very Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I know what it looks like. After a few weeks of mediocre posting, during which I only gave you one (one!) recipe, I am trying to make it up to you with another cookie recipe. The audacity that is me and my food blogging self!

I don't mean to offend, really. And the only reason I'm not sharing a cute and pastel Easter feast with you is that, frankly, I'm not having one this year. But let me assure you of two things before you decide to be mad at me for my food blogging failings: 1) this is the last cookie recipe I'll give you for a while; and 2) this really is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever made. And that's coming from someone who in general doesn't like chocolate chip cookies.


Last summer, finding the consummate chocolate chip cookie was all the rage. After an article in the New York Times, which supposedly had found the chocolate chip cookie recipe to end the decades-old ccc quest, the food blogging community tested the recipe. Yummy noises ensued from practically ever corner of cyberspace. Who even knew that could happen?

So I tried the cookies. My mom took them to a block party. She said people ate them and enjoyed them. I, however, didn't like them.


I prefer to stick with the recipe I adapted from Leah Eskin in her pre-Trib Mag food writer days back in the eighth grade. After all, it's this chocolate chip cookie that I made every week for marching band trips so as to quell my section's frustration with my mellophone anal-retentiveness. It's this chocolate chip cookie that, in all actuality, got me to take cooking seriously.

I'm not promising it'll work such wonders for you, but if, at the very least, you enjoy chocolate chip cookies, you should try this one. My secret is melting the butter. The residual heat from the butter causes the chocolate chips to start to melt in the batter, making the cookies a blend of brown-sugary goodness and chocolate instead of smooth cookie with chunks of hard chocolate. I think this balance makes all the difference.


Amy's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick butter
3/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz chocolate chips

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Remove the pan from heat once the butter is melted. Add the sugar and eggs to the saucepan and blend well. Mix in the flour, salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Pour in the chocolate chips, then mix the batter well. Scoop the still-warm dough onto a parchment-papered or Silpat-ed cookie sheet. Bake each sheet at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for fifteen minutes. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet.
Note: This recipe can be easily doubled. I usually get 16-20 cookies from this single recipe depending upon how much dough I can keep myself from eating.