Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are not chewy, but not crispy either. Nor are they powdery. These are soft cookies. Soft, as in cake-like, light, but not squishy. They would dissolve in your mouth, not melt.

These are some pretty tasty cookies.

I think the reason for the soft texture is that all the ingredients are beaten in. This adds quite a lot of air into the batter, making the final result light. I have been told that to make chewy cookies, the best way is to use melted butter. I don't if if this is true, but seems to make sense. Using melted butter would eliminate the creaming step, therefore incorporating less air into the batter. In turn, the cookie will not rise as much, resulting in a denser, chewier, texture. If you want to try this I the best way would be too mix the melted butter (cooled until you can put your finger in it easily) with the eggs, and combine the sugar with the flour mixture. Then you slowly incorporate the dry ingredients with the egg-butter. Stir or use an electric mixer until you get a smooth dough. If you try this, please tell me about it, I would love to you your results!

I found the cookies to have a slight "baking soda" taste that I did not really like. No one else could taste it, but I think that next time I make the cookies, I will use baking powder.

If you do not know how to cream, please visit my explanation about it.

Now for the recipe: it is Baking Bite's "Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies" with my comments in [brackets]

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda [next time I will use 2 tsp baking powder]

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups brown sugar [I used slightly more than 1 cup]

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda [powder] and salt. [I sifted everything together, but note that since the recipe does not specify sifted flour in the ingredients list, you should measure the flour unsifted first]

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light, about 2 minutes.

Beat in vanilla extract and egg until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add in all the flour mixture, stopping when the dough has just come together and no streaks of flour remain.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Place slightly rounded tablespoons of dough on baking sheet. [here, basically use a tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop out dough and a knife to remove most of the excess]
Bake for 9-11 [it was more around 15] minutes, until just golden around the edges.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. [let the cookies cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then let them cool completely on a rack to prevent the bottom from getting soggy]

Makes 3 dozen.