chocolate chunk cookies

Perhaps it says something about me that this blog turns two tomorrow, yet this is the first time I've posted about chocolate chip cookies.

I think it says: I'm picky.

Like many of you, I'm sure, I've made chocolate chip cookies countless times, even from countless recipes. And they always seem to come out ... the same.  Fluffy, not chewy.  Good, not great.  My ideal chocolate chip cookie definitely lies in the realm of gooeyness, with a surplus of chocolate chips — or even better, chocolate chunks.

I've seriously considered getting a job at the bakery counter at Burlington's Fresh Market, and keeping it just long enough to learn the recipe for their oversize chocolate chunk cookies — they're just salty enough, and have almost a layer of melted chocolate inside a firm but definitely chewy cookie.  But getting a job just to steal a recipe seems a little extreme.

So I've found a good alternative — let's celebrate two years of blogging (!) with this chocolate chunk cookie recipe from Alice Medrich's Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunch, Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies.  This recipe yields really excellent, thick cookies that can handle a healthy amount of chocolate chunks.  For me, they're even better slightly underbaked, with the center set, but still soft, just out of the oven.  It firms up into something very close to my ideal cookie.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies
From Alice Medrich's My Chocolate Chip Cookies in Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunch, Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

2 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and still warm
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chunks

Sift together the flour and baking soda in a bowl.

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter with the sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt.  Mix in the eggs. Stir in the flour mixture just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the chocolate chunks; stir.  Let dough chill in the fridge at least 1 to 2 hours, or overnight if possible.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Position rack in the lower third of the oven.

If necessary, remove the dough from the refrigerator to soften. Roll out rounded tablespoons of dough and place them three inches apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake 9 to 11 minutes (9 was best for me), until the cookies are golden brown at the edges. Remove from the oven, transfer the cookies on the parchment paper to racks to cool completely before storing.