Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite kind of cookies would have to be your basic chocolate chip cookies.  I borrowed Martha Stewart's recipe for "Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies," and the results were sensational. 

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips (about 12 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together (sifted) flour and baking soda in a bowl.  Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine butter and sugars until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce speed to low.  Add salt, vanilla, and eggs; mix until well-blended, about 1 minute.  Mix in flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips. 
2. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10 to 12 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks for 2 minutes.  Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.  Cookies can be stores between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

The only changes I made to this recipe included the type of flour (I used bread flour) and the baking time (about 15-17 minutes).  It's important to use your butter and eggs at room temperature because it ensures soft, consistent cookies.  Also, after 10 minutes of baking, keep an eye on your cookies with the oven light.  Every oven heats differently, and the size of your cookies will change the baking time.  The original recipe is supposed to make about three dozen cookies, but after completing the process, I only had 18 cookies...clearly my "heaping tablespoons of dough" were larger than Martha intended!  Still delicious, though. :)