"The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookie

     Okay. So I haven't been spending too much time in the kitchen, as evidenced by my neglected little space here.  My right hand has been out of commission ever since an unfortunate tumble on a riser left me with a torn ligament. Who knew that school pictures were so hazardous? Repairs have been made, but I'll be in a cast for a while yet.

      My grandson in TX requested cookies, so I couldn't let a little thing like a bum thumb get in the way. I looked to Alton Brown and his mixer friendly recipe for  The Chewy, and he did not disappoint me. The only change I made was to use dark brown instead of light brown sugar. And I chilled the dough overnight, which made it even harder to scoop left handed, but made for a nice compact cookie that didn't spread too much in the oven.

     This cookie lived up to its descriptive name, and was still pronounced "yummy" (and still chewy) after a few days in the hands of the postal service. It's definitely a "keeper" recipe, especially since my trusty mixer did most of the hard work! And my grandson's smiles across the miles made it totally worth it. :)

The Chewy
Recipe from Alton Brown, Food Network
I followed the recipe linked above with a few minor changes I've indicated below.
Ingredients- If you have a food scale, I recommend weighing the ingredients- especially the flour.
2 sticks (16 Tblsp.) unsalted butter
12 oz. bread flour (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 oz. granulated sugar (about 4 1/2 Tblsp.)
8 oz. light brown sugar (about one cup) I used dark brown.
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 oz. whole milk (2 Tblsp.)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
12 oz. chocolate chips
Directions:

• Melt butter over low heat. Cool slightly.
• In a stand mixer (using paddle attachment) mix butter and both sugars on med. speed for 2 minutes.
• Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. (I like to sift onto a piece of waxed paper.)
• In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla. Add to butter and sugar in mixer (on low speed) until combined.
• Gradually pour in flour mixture, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
• Once flour has been incorporated, reduce mixer speed to "stir" and add chocolate chips.
• Chill dough for at least an hour. (I chilled mine overnight)
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Scoop dough onto parchment covered baking sheets.
• Bake 13-15 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of your cookies. I used the medium sized scoop from Pampered Chef, and baked them about 14 minutes. Using this scoop, the recipe yielded about 3 1/2 dozen cookies.
• Slide parchment (cookies and all) onto racks to cool. Remove cookies from parchment to rack when they've cooled enough to firm up.