Kelly’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

16 ounces all-purpose flour (3 1/2 cups)

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt OR 3/4 teaspoon table salt

1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (2 ½ sticks)

10 ounces dark brown sugar (1 ¼ cups)

8 ounces granulated sugar (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ¼ pounds chocolate chips (I prefer Ghirardelli)

Directions

Sift (or whisk together) flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream butter and both sugars together until blended. Don't go crazy here, just make sure everything is incorporated. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a size 20 ice cream scoop (approximately ¼ cup) form dough into balls, *place on cookie sheet and bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until light golden brown but still soft. Let cookies rest on cookie sheet for only 1 or 2 minutes, then gently remove from tray and place directly on counter top until set enough to eat. Don't even bother with a cooling rack.

Best enjoyed with a tall glass of cold milk.

Notes

Size matters. Anything smaller than ¼ cup produces an inferior cookie. Milk or dark? You decide. I use half milk and half dark.

*These cookies always taste better if you freeze the dough first and cook them from the frozen state – just add a couple of minutes to the baking time. The dough keeps well for about a month in the freezer – just form into balls before freezing. Toasted walnuts or pecans are fabulous.

Update on 3/29/09: For those of you who have been using this recipe, I want you to know I've made a few little tweaks. First, I cut back on the flour from 3 3/4 cup to 3 1/2 cups and I no longer cream the butter and sugars for 5 minutes. I found that just a nice little mix gives the cookie a better, less cakey texture (and it's easier too!).