The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

I heard recently that the secret to perfect chocolate chip cookies is to allow the dough to rest for 36 hours before you bake.

This is swell in theory, but in reality it’s quite impossible. For crabby cooks, making anything in advance is challenging; we usually cook on an as-needed-right-now basis.

There’s also the fact that I make C.C.C.’s when I’m in emergency mode, when I need them immediately, not in three days. I need them when the kids are having friends over, and you don’t get three days notice on such occasions. You’re lucky if you get three minutes. The house fills, quite suddenly, with hungry teenagers and in a rush of good will, you agree to make them cookies. Before you have time to say, “What was I thinking?” you’ve got out the flour and the butter. A half an hour later, you’ve got happy teens and a great-smelling house.

So, don’t worry if you can’t let the dough rest for 36 hours. Just make the cookies when you need ’em, and then you go rest for 36 hours.

2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or do what I do and line it with a sheet of Silpat.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat together the sugars and butter until they’re well combined. Stir in the vanilla.

3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the butter mixture and mix until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Place tablespoon-sized clumps of dough on the baking sheet, leaving two inches around each cookie. Bake until lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes. Let them cool for five minutes on the sheet before you remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

(Makes about 36 cookies.)

Tags: chocolate, chocolate chip cookies

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Just Desserts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.