perfect chocolate chip cookies

 

Gooey on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside, hint of coconut and little melted chocolate morsels.  That sentence perfectly describes my experience as I chomp down on these.  When people first start baking they usually start with cookies or easy sheet cakes.  I was the cookie person.  I absolutely love great cookies and a real classic is the chocolate chip cookie.  This cookie goes great with coffee, hot chocolate, or black tea.  I believe because the chocolate chip cookie goes so great with all three of these drinks this makes it the ultimate comfort food for a cold, wet, night.  Like I stated before it was the cookie that I first started baking when I was new to the science of baking.  I have tried multiple variations and finally I have the recipe which is just perfect.  First you will notice there is no granulated sugar.....brown sugar just tastes better.  Other than that the recipe isn't that different.  A bit more vanilla, flour, and less chocolate chips.  The reason I have less chocolate chips is because I like to enjoy the flavor of the cookie itself with a hint of chocolate.  Some recipes put so much chocolate in there the true tase of the cookie is lost.  For this recipe you will need:

3 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 tsp baking soda (if you are at a high elevation make it a scant tsp)

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar packed

2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chops

1 cup coconut

1 cup walnuts (opt)

My butter is cubed in the photo, but I found out later that it works better melted. mix melted butter with brown sugar.  mix it until you can't see the butter anymore and the mixture is creamy.  Add the vanilla and the eggs.

Sift all of your dry ingredients into a bowl.  If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see where I dropped my small camera into the flour....oops!  Switch to a paddle mixer before adding the dry ingredients.  While the mixer is on low, slowly add the flour mixture.  If you go to fast you will have a flour mess.  After the flour is completely mixed in, add the coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts if you are using them.

Now this next instruction is very important.....don't eat all of the cookie dough!  I snagged a couple of bites but I was able to retrain myself so I would have enough room in my belly for the cooked cookies.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet and scoop onto the sheet leaving about an inch of space between them.  I use a cookie scoop, it makes everything so easy and all of my cookies are the same size so I don't have to worry about uneven baking.  Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes and allow to cool a bit before eating.

 

Serve with your hot drink of choice.  This is a picture of my coffee and all of my cookies.....just kidding I had help eating these.  These cookies store really well in the freezer, or the refrigerator depending on how long you want them to last.  I suggest storing them in the freezer cause they will taste fresh for a lot longer, just let them warm up on the counter for a couple of minutes before you eat them :)