Chocolate Chip Cookies (A La Bon Appetit)

At our church we are encouraged to bring something yummy to put on the back table for all to munch on before, during and after church.  Our church has 3 basically three components:  1) The "front door" where we hope all in our community feel welcome to step through (regardless of where they are in life), the 2) "living room" where we grow in the Word of God and in our relationships, meeting in small groups (literally in each other's living rooms) and finally 3) the "kitchen" where we roll up our sleeves and work side by side keeping the church itself going. Besides being coffee girl every Sunday for the past 2 months I wanted to share something yummy that would feed the soul.  What better than chocolate chip cookies that have crunchy goodness on the edges and soft bliss in the center.  This recipe out of Bon Appetit this month fills the bill.  The recipe itself is very simple and the cookies came out divine.  A home chef at any level can turn out a batch in no time.

I decided to double this recipe since I knew I would be feeding my congregation and it still only made about 33 medium sized cookies.  When I make these again I think I will spoon out the dough into much smaller balls (the cookies I served this morning were healthy golf-ball sized dough balls).  The recipe below reflects the "doubling".

First you want to take out 3 sticks of unsalted butter (1 1/2 cups) and 2 large eggs.  These really need to come to room temperature (don't cheat and use them cold out of the fridge).  Now adjust the racks in your oven so the top one is 1/3 from the top and the bottom one is 1/3 from the bottom.  Turn the oven on and preheat to 425F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  I used this new product from Reynold's Wrap called "Pan Lining Paper" (OK, I had a coupon).

It works pretty well.  Since there is foil on one side it can mold itself easier to your baking dish than just plain parchment paper.  Plain old parchment paper works well too...and it is more frugal (unless you are one of those super coupon divas that gets 80% off of all that they buy...which is not me).  Anyway, if you are using this product make sure the parchment paper side (the white side) is facing up.

In a medium bowl whisk together (really....use a wire whisk) 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt and 1 tsp. baking powder.

Now in your large mixer bowl beat together the butter (is it room temperature?), 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar and 1/2 cup sugar (plain old white sugar).

This will take about 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed.  You want it to get creamy.

Now add the eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla extract (please use the real stuff.  This blog is all about keeping it real).  Again, beat it for another 2-3 minutes until it is light and fluffy.

No tasting the uncooked batter.  Bad germies lurk in raw eggs.

Now fold in (this means stir in gently by hand) 2 cups of chocolate chip cookies.  (I used 1 cup semi-sweet and 1 cup milk chocolate...feel free to get creative and choose whatever chips sound good to you).

Now spoon little balls of dough onto the parchment lined baking sheets so they are about 1 1/2" a part.

Bake them in the pre-heated oven for about 6-8 minutes, rotating the pans about half way through baking.  They are done when the outer edges just begin to brown.  Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the sheet and then transfer them to racks to completely cool.

Mine came out a little "square" because I didn't adhere to the "keep them 1 1/2" a part" rule.  I'm sure yours will be much prettier.

Yum!!

For me, each cookie came out to about 5.9 points each:

Flour: 26 pts.
Butter: 71 pts. (yikes)
Brown sugar: 35 pts.
Sugar: 11 pts.
Eggs: 4 pts.
Chocolate chips: 49 pts.