Legendary Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's not difficult to make a good chocolate chip cookie, heck even Pillsbury has the recipe nailed as far as I'm concerned. These cookies are beyond good. They are legendary... at least in my social circle. I'd like to take credit for the recipe, but alas, it's one of Martha's. I do make one change to the recipe that is basically a game changer and makes these cookies as amazing as they are.

A girlfriend of mine's birthday was coming up, and since I'm now a poor pastry student I decided to bake up a batch of these for her.

The recipe calls for your standard chocolate chip cookie ingredients, plus one modification...

The game changer:

Instead of regular old table salt I use sea salt. The chunks don't dissolve in the cookie dough, which means that each cookie will have a crunchy bit of salt in it. The salt brings out the taste in the cookies and makes them amazing. If you don't like crunchy bits of salt in your cookies, then by all means, use the plain old table salt and settle for less-than-legendary cookies :).

You can see the recipe below, but here are some progress pictures. Pretty much impossible not to dive into the cookie dough with a spoon. It happens every time.

Look at those perfectly round little scoops!

Heavenly just like this.

 Post-baking.

I dare you to eat just one.

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SOFT AND CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Yield: 36-42 cookies*

2¼ cups    all-purpose flour

     ½ tsp    baking soda

     1 cup    unsalted butter (room temperature)

    ½ cup    granulated sugar

     1 cup    packed light-brown sugar

      1 tsp    sea salt

     2 tsps    pure vanilla extract

   2 large    eggs (room temperature)

    2 cups    semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
2. Whisk together flour and baking soda, set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy (approx. 2-3mins). 
• I use my KitchenAid with the paddle attachment, but you can use a hand mixer as well.
4. Reduce speed and add (sea) salt, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until combined.
5. Add flour mixture a little at a time and mix until just combined (do not overbeat).
6. Add in the chocolate chips
• I toss these right into my mixer but it struggles a bit. If you're using a hand mixer I'd recommend folding them in with a spoon or spatula.
7. Refrigerate cookie dough for at least 3 hours.
• This isn't a must do, but I find that if the dough is cold, the cookies won't spread too much when baked.  We are going for "soft & chewy" not "thin & crispy" after all. I often leave mine in the fridge overnight.
8. Use a cookie scoop to drop cookies onto your baking sheet. 
• I typically use a medium sized cookie scoop, which is about a tablespoon, but have used the large one as well. I get 12 cookies per sheet with the medium scoop and 8 with the large one.
• You don't need to use a cookie scoop, but we already know I'm anal, so...
9. Bake for about 8-10mins or until golden on the edges, but still gooey in the center.
10. Remove from oven. Let cool on pans for 2 minutes, then transfer onto wire racks to cool completely.
11. Dive into a cookie as soon as it's cooled enough to handle.

*Depending on how much dough is eaten before baking.