Mmmmm....

Just made these today:
I've made (and eaten) countless chocolate chip cookies in my lifetime, but it wasn't until I received the May/June 09 issue of Cooks Illustrated that I found the perfect chocolate chip cookies recipe.

One of the secrets of this recipe is that the butter is browned before adding it to the batter. This gives the cookies such a deep, rich flavor.

I've tweaked the recipe a bit and here is my version.

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon soda
13 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

The directions are a bit more involved than a traditional chocolate chip cookies recipe, but I promise that the extra time will be worth the effort.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Melt 10 tablespoons of butter in a skillet. Continue stirring butter until it is completely melted, turns slightly brown and has a delicious browned butter smell. Add melted butter to remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and stir until melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to the butter and stir until combined. Add eggs and mix for about 30 seconds. Allow the batter to sit for 3 minutes and then mix for another 30 seconds. Repeat this stir/rest method 3 times.

4. Add flour and baking soda until just combined. Don't overmix. Stir in chocolate chips.

5. Make dough into golf ball sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. 12 cookies per sheet. Makes about 20 cookies per batch. Bake 10 minutes or until they just start to turn slightly golden. You don't want to overcook, so be sure to watch them and pull them out before they get too brown. Allow cookies to rest on baking pan for a couple of minutes after pulling them from the oven and then move them to a cooling rack.
(The dough is divine, so be sure to give some a try!)