Martha Stewart's Chocolate Chip Cookies

A rainy day and two four year old girls running around my house sent me straight to the kitchen to a) get away and b) create a diversion for the kids that didn't involve listening to Barney or the Wiggles. God love 'em.

So, out came the tried and true Martha Stewart Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. With two giggling girls sitting on stools around the KitchenAid mixer, we beat and blended and tasted raw (yes raw) cookie dough to our heart's content.

Trouble with 4 year olds, they want to touch everything...from the dough you are trying to ball up and bake, to the hot oven, to the hot pans, to the hot cookies, you get the drill. There was a lot of "No, don't touch! Hot!" going on in my kitchen today. And then they don't quite understand that you can't grab a scorching hot cookie straight from the oven and scarf it down immediately. Let's just say their 4 year old cookie patience was being pushed to the limits with all these regulations.

Anyway, back to the recipe. Let me tell you that these cookies are excellent. The Martha Stewart chocolate chip cookie recipe creates the perfect consistency for a chocolate chip cookie: crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, with nice soft and melty chips. I used 1/2 white chocolate and 1/2 semi-sweet this time, because I was low on semi-sweet. They are also excellent with chopped walnuts.

Her original recipe calls for a 18 minute cooking time. I found mine were just about done at 13 minutes, though. You don't want to over-bake these cookies, or they will be too crisp.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 large whole egg, plus 1 large egg white

2 oz. semisweet chocolate chunks (about 2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 375F, with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the vanilla, whole egg, and egg white. Beat on low speed until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture in two batches; mix until just combined. Mix in chocolate.

Shape 2 heaping tablespoons of dough at a time into balls and place about 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are golden brown, about 18 minutes ( I did 13). Transfer parchment and cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.