Chock Full of Chocolate Chip Cookies--Sorry No TWD Today

I spent last week out of town visiting my family in Idaho with the three youngest boys.  I didn’t get to make the chosen recipe (Date Nut Loaf Cake) for Tuesdays With Dorie.  But I do have some of the most fantastic chocolate chip cookies to share with you.  I almost feel like I’m moonlighting on my usual favorite chocolate chip cookies, but these Chock Full of Chocolate Chip Cookies are way, way up there with some of the best!

This recipe is adapted from Elinor Klivans’ chocolate chip cookie in her book, The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook.  She is not kidding when she says they are CHOCK FULL of chocolate chips—there are four cups of chips in the recipe.  I would even say there are more chips than cookie dough in these cookies.  They are heavenly.  They bake to the perfect thickness.  I made some small ones (probably less than an ounce each) and I made some the size Elinor suggested—three tablespoonfuls (pictured above).  The smaller ones are great for a crowd.  Well, who am I kidding, the bigger ones are, too!  The recipe makes at least 3 dozen smaller ones and probably only about 18 of the suggested size.  *Note that I used a different amount of flour and sugar than Elinor because of our higher altitude.  She uses 1 1/4 cups flour and 6 tablespoons granulated sugar.

If you are any kind of a chocolate chip cookie fanatic like I am, you really should try these.  I adapted the recipe a little in hopes of them working for the higher altitude I’m at and they are just as I remember them from a few years ago.  Not long after starting my blog, over three years ago, I made these and threw a picture of them on a post I did about a bunch of different chocolate chip cookies I’d made.  I also put them in another post not long after that and made a great big cookie that I tried to have mimic a Levain Chocolate Chip Cookie.  While I would not compare the two now, I would rate them up there with Levain's Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie or my beloved New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie adaptation.

Chock Full of Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Elinor Klivans, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 1/2 cups (180 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (110 grams)

1/4 cup granulated sugar (50 grams)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups chocolate chips (24 ounces)—I used 12 oz. semi sweet and 12 oz. dark chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  In medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Whisk together.

Beat the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer until well blended, 1-2 minutes.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix well, 1-2 minutes. 

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Drop by desired size tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets leaving about 2 inches between each.  The small ones baked in about 11 minutes, the bigger ones baked for 14 minutes.  Remove sheet from oven and let cookies sit on baking sheet for about 5 minutes.  Then remove to wire rack to cool for as long as you can stand it until you just have to try one.  Store in an airtight container.

 My parents were vendors at their local farmer’s market for 20 years.  They still are, but they just sold the house (and land) they had for 28 years and moved to a much, much smaller house and are not going to grow and sell produce anymore.  They still have a booth at the market though—they bake cookies—all kinds of cookies.  Great, big cookies.  Tried and true recipes that everyone loves.  And their booth has been renamed from Scott’s Produce & Things to Scott’s Cookie Jar.  My niece also started a booth at the market selling things she has crocheted.  She recently made my dad the cutest chef’s hat with a great, big chocolate chip cookie on it.  Of course, I told her I had to have one, too.  (You can, too, just let me know and she’ll make you one—for a small fee.  She crochets anything and everything!)

There are two more tables full of cookies next to the one in the picture.  I brought last week’s TWD Chocolate Biscotti with me in hopes that my dad would eat them.  He loved them and said he’d have several people at the Cookie Jar asking if they ever made biscotti.  So my dad and I made three batches—the Chocolate Biscotti, the Lenox Almond Biscotti and some Cranberry Orange Vanilla Chip Biscotti.  (Except my dad accidentally put raisins in instead of cranberries and we decided not to put nuts in them—they are most often made with pistachios).  They all sold really well, but the chocolate biscotti were the biggest sellers.

So good to see (and be with) my parents.  I don’t take pictures with them or of them often enough.  So here’s one with me and my mommy, too.

Just so you don’t forget the chocolate chip cookies--- ;)