chocolate chip cookies

ingredients

• 2 sticks salted or unsalted butter (2 cups, ~450g)
• up to 3 cups of bread flour (~400 grams)
• 1.5 to 2 cups of sugar (~300-400g)
• 1.5-3 teaspoons of salt (~8-15g)
• 2 eggs
• teaspoon of baking soda (~3.5g)
• however much vanilla extract your heart desires
• molasses
• however many chocolate chips your heart desires (but not too many, as it can impede baking) - I personally find that mini chocolate chips allow for a more “even” cookie. I like it that way, but whatever way is fine. I usually put in almost an entire bag of chocolate chips from the store

steps

1. melt the butter completely in the microwave
2. mix butter with sugar in a big bowl - adam says that the extra 0.5 cups of sugar are for texture, but I have made both 1.5 cups and 2 cups of sugar and haven’t really noticed much of a difference in texture. I like to keep my sugar intake relatively controlled, so I usually go on the lower end of 1.5 cups
3. drop in a bit of molasses and mix - I don’t measure it, like adam. I just do a quick dip and rotate so it doesn’t go everywhere. any amount that isn’t ridiculous is usually fine, just makes the cookies taste a bit more Brown than Sugar
4. add eggs, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, mix until smooth - I just dip some of the vanilla extract in. a “glug” as he says - I once accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda. it resulted in the cookies spreading less and being more… “cake-like”? only ever so slightly--not enough to be substantial. if that interests you, you can try that. baking soda makes it spread more which I personally like
5. Add 2 cups of bread flour (~366g) to start off with, and continuously mix - continue adding bread flour and mixing until you get a consistency described as “wet, but not sticky”. I usually average out at about 2.5 to 3 cups of bread flour for this.
6. chill for at least an hour in the fridge - adam does at least half an hour. that’s fine if you’re in a rush, but I find it still a bit hard to work with after only half an hour in my fridge. an hour is perfect for me
7. (optional) turn the oven to “broil” (or “grill”) - adam does this because it allows the middle to brown evenly as well, while not losing the good “underdone” soft middle part. it’s mostly an aesthetic difference. I like it, so I do it - if you don’t want to do it, preheat to 375F (~190C)
8. shape the dough into slightly-larger-than-a-golf ball spheres, before smushing them down into a sort of hockey puck shape. place as many as you can on a pan - this allows it to spread better and bake the middle some as well. unlike the broil thing, I highly recommend doing this rather than just a “maybe do, maybe not” deal - you can use olive oil or parchment paper if you want. I use parchment paper personally. I’ve also rawdogged it without either of them and it came out fine. your call
9. if using the broiler, put on the top rack for about a minute. Take it out and set the oven to 375F (~190C) afterwards
10. Bake for ~10 minutes at first, then check the cookies for a consistency you like - for me, after using the broiler, I usually bake for 10 minutes flat. if you’re not using the broiler, it’ll be longer, like 11 or 12 minutes.
11. let cool for a few minutes before transferring to something else and repeating the process for however many batches you make

comment on “brown sugar”

if you’re using brown sugar in the context of a recipe with a bunch of other wet ingredients, like most of baking, it’s not really useful to have the solid brown sugar. adam suggests using sugar + molasses, which I find that I like more since it allows me to control how Brown Sugary I want the thing to taste

in this recipe specifically, a “glug” of just “enough that’s not too much” came into intuition for me. I kinda just sent it the first time, it was too much, did a little less next time was perfect