Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a giant book borrowed from an aunt – The Taste of Home : Ultimate Cookie Collection, which has several hundred recipes and very useful directions to almost everything in the land of cookie making. How to store cookies, how to ship them, what if cookies spread too much while baking, what if they don’t, what to do if they are too tough/ too brown / too pale, etc etc. its a delight to read the book and experiment from there.

And my baby Arjun has a book where the cartoon Elmo is making cookies. So he wants to make cookies every weekend. It’s fun to bake with him (only if you ignore all the mess that he does). 😛

Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies

What you will need :

• 1 and half cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 150 gram butter at room temperature (approx 10 tablespoons)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cup chocolate chips

What to do :

1. In a bowl, stir in baking powder and baking soda in the flour and then sift it once. This ensures that the baking powder and soda get mixed evenly in the flour and it gets aerated once sieved.
2. In another bowl, take butter at room temperature and whisk it with an electric beater. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat till it becomes light, about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add lightly beaten eggs and vanilla extract and beat for another 2-3 minutes. Let it all get incorporated well.
4. Now add the flour mixture into the butter and egg mixture and whisk till it all comes together. Do not over-mix.
5. Remove the whisk and then fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
6. Take a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper.
7. Now with a tablespoon, drop 12 heaps on the parchment paper, spaced well about 1 inch between two heaps.
8. Put it int he fridge to chill for at-least 15 minutes.
9. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 170 C.
10. After 15 minutes chill time, put the tray in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, till the top gets slightly browned and the cookies get crisp on the outside. You can also rotate the pan once in between.
11. Keep next batch ready for baking or if you have a bigger oven, you can bake two sheets at a time.

Notes :

• The cookies spread out once they go in the oven. So make small heaps and space them apart.
• If you want very crisp cookies bake for a minute longer, if you want a chewy centre, bake for a minute or two less. Also individual ovens behave differently, keep a close watch while baking cookies.
• You can also cut the cookies with a cookie cutter when they are fresh out of the oven. Like I did with a Christmas tree cutter in the picture above.

Bon Apetit!

Rutvika