Abra's recipe won the cookie cook-off!

[Kim Shook]

I have been searching for years for the perfect Chocolate Chip Cooky. Big, fat cookies with a chewy (not cakey) interior and a sugary crunch on the outside. These are great! I requested help from the folks at here egullet.org and at cyber-kitchen.com and got lots of suggestions. I tried 3 different recipes. After an exhausting and thorough baking marathon and taste test , making a couple of adjustments to the recipes, this recipe was the winner. We tasted all the cookies cooled down and then again the next morning. (By the way, Mr. Kim thinks I am insane). The only things that I did differently were to use bread flour (Alton Brown suggests that for chewy cookies) and to omit the nuts (not a big fan of nuts in cookies or fudge). I used a 3 T. cooky scoop and so my cookies took almost 20 minutes to bake. These are beautiful cookies – high and crackly, they look like bakery cookies, but taste SO much better. The chips are key. I used Ghirardelli, but am going to try chunking up some better chocolate some other time. I am a big milk chocolate fan, but have realized that with such a sweet cooky, semisweet is better. Thank you so much, Abra - and you don't even LIKE them!!!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. softened butter

½ c. granulated sugar

1 ½ c. packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 ½ t. vanilla extract

3 c. AP flour

½ t. salt

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

9 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

9 oz. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix as usual and bake for about 11 minutes.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

[Abra]

Hey, cool! Me, I'd leave out the chocolate chips and just have the pecans, then I'd love them too. I'll have to tell my husband that his good taste in cookies has been officially confirmed!

[mochihead]

Excellent... I have a new recipe to try out this week! There is no such thing as too much research into the most perfect chewy chocolate chip cookie!

[K8memphis]

Congratulations to both of you!

[Wendy DeBord]

I've printed the recipe out, can't wait to try them (it may be along time.......but first chance I will)!

[sugarbuzz]

That recipe is very similar to a Mrs. Fields knock off recipe I found on the web. I think the one I found used 21/2c. flour & a bit more salt. I was actually going to make those today.

So I made these & ended up using the 3c. flour recipe.Turned out great. 2 1/2 c. was not enough..too flat. I may make some more but with some chopped butter toffee peanuts thrown in.

I used a 2tbsp scoop..nice average size cookie..high & chewy. 350 degree oven for 12-14 min.

Edited November 30, 2005 by sugarbuzz (log)

[CanadianBakin']

I gave these a try yesterday and they are very good. I took a bunch to work and they devoured them. I liked that they were chewy without me wondering if they were cooked through, like fudgy ones do. However, they were almost a bit too chewy for me. I think there might be a fine line between chewy and tough. Which leavener should I reduce to get them just slightly less chewy(or tough)?

Edited December 4, 2005 by CanadianBakin' (log)