The Chewy

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The Perfect Dessert

A giant chocolate chip cookie with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top. The combination of sweet, smooth, cold, and chocolate. Yum. There is really not much else I can say about it.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(As found on Annie's Eats)

2 cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven 325°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside. With electric mixer, or by hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined. Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.

Add dry ingredients and beat at low-speed just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll a scant half-cup of dough into a ball. Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull apart into two equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (approximately 11-14 minutes). Do not overbake.

Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

(Source: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebowitz)

1 cup milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cups sugar

1 vanilla bean

5 egg yolks

2 cup heavy cream

A few drops of vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.

2. Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping. Chill thoroughly, then remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

Half wheat?

If I use half unbleached all-purpose and half unbleached whole wheat flour does that make the cookies half wheat's? Well, I don't really know the answer to that but I do know that it makes these cookies delicious! This is probably one of the best chocolate chip cookie recipes I have ever made. The cookies are slightly crisp on the outside, chewy and tender on the inside and they have great depth in their flavor. On top of all of that they are also the prettiest chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. I used my medium scoop for these cookies and the centers stayed thick and puffy and they spread just enough to give them a perfect round shape. The original recipe is from the Levain Bakery that was featured on Bobby Flay's show, Throw Down. I made a few modifications (hence the half wheat) so the recipe below is with my modifications. I really think that the whole wheat flour enhanced the flavor, so if you have some give it a try, if not all-purpose is good too.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Source: Levain Bakery)


1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour (I recommend King Arthur)
1 1/2 cups unbleached white whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts (I omitted)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl combine the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Give it a good stir with a fork.
In a large bowl (or standing mixer bowl) cream the butter and sugars. When they are well combined add the eggs and vanilla. Next slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Be VERY careful not to over mix. Stay on low speed!! Add the chocolate chips (and walnuts if using) to the dough and blend with a wooden spoon.
Using a medium scoop, drop by the scoop full onto a baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 for 17-20 minutes (mine were finished at 18 minutes).

Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow! That's a mouthfull! (the name and the cookie)

Here is my review. These cookies are very good. Mine did not spread quite like I think they should have but I also chilled them before putting them on the pan. My final verdict is that I would make these again, but I think for the most part I will stick with my recipe (to be posted at a later date). These things take freaking forever to bake (partly due to size).

Besides the stuff in bold, this is exactly as the recipe appears on allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper. [the first batch I used the parchment paper the second batch I didn't the cookies were fine both times]
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl[I used my standing mixer, the wisk for the liquids and the paddle when I added the flour], cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes [mine took a LOT longer than this] in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.