Created by Soul: First post of the year...

Yup, I'm a bit late on the New Year post but it's no biggie...it's actually the first full week of the new year so it's all good. For my first post of the new year I have for your consideration these yummy-ooey-gooey chocolate chip cookies. These are the BEST cookies I've ever made and tasted. They are as big as my hand and full of deliciousness! Although patience is needed when making these and you'll see why later. I got the recipe from the show The Chew. Now, I must admit when this show first aired I was totally on the fence...so totally that I almost jumped off. But I stayed with it for the first week and then I was still unsure. The hosts were so frenetic (well, except for Mario Batali...he kind of was looking like, "what the heck am I doing here?!?!") and Michael Symon's laugh bugged me to no end! Oh, and Carla Hall's just looked crazy! And Clinton Kelly! I kept wondering who this guy was as I don't recall him being such a spaz on "What Not to Wear". Anyway, after the second week I was getting into it and now I record every show! Although sometimes Mario still looks like he's wondering, "what the heck am I doing here?!?!". ANYway...back to the recipe...

BUT! Before I get to said recipe....look what I got for Christmas...

Photo of it still in the box

Yep! It's my very own KitchenAid courtesy of my guy...isn't he the best! It was the perfect gift and one I've been coveting for a couple of years now. I guess after 2 or 3 years of saying how much I would love to have a KitchenAid standing mix, how much I needed it, how many more things I could bake, blah, blah, blah he finally got the hint! (love you honey!) It couldn't have been gifted to me at a better time as my hand mixer died on December 24th.

OK, now on to the recipe. This recipe is from award winning pastry chef Jacques Torres who was a guest on the show. I followed the recipe exactly. On a side note....just kidding here ya go...

Cookies cooling on wire rack.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe by Jacques Torres via The Chew website

What you'll need:
2 cups minus 2 tbs. cake flour
1 2/3 cup bread flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. coarse salt (I used sea salt)
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cups plus 2 tbs. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips)
Sea salt for garnish

The how to:

1. In a bowl sift together cake and bread flours along with baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set this mixture aside.

2. Fit your mixer with paddle attachment and cream together the butter and sugars until very light in color. This took about 4 to 5 minutes.

3. To the above sugar mixture add eggs one at a time making sure you mix well after each one. Now add the vanilla and reduce speed to low. Add the dry ingredients and mix for about 10 seconds -- just until well combined.

4. Stir in the chocolate to the mixture.

5. Here's where the patience part comes in...you can't cook these suckers right away! What the what!?!? I'm sure there is a very important reason for this (and more experienced bakers will know why) but I wasn't listening when I watched the show as I was just looking at the cookies. Anyway, you have to press plastic wrap against the dough and around the bowl and refrigerate it for a minimum of 24 hours (I did for about 40 hours because I wasn't able to cook them the following night). The recipe states you can refrigerate the dough for up to 72 hours.

6. OK, so now that you are ready to bake these bad boys you have to set your oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with foil/parchment paper or use one of those handy dandy nonstick baking mats. I used an ice cream scooper to scoop the mounds of dough (the recipe says should be "size of generous golf balls" and the ice creamer scooper did the trick) onto the cookie sheet. Sprinkle each mound lightly with sea salt (you can omit this if you want but it gave it a really good flavor....sweetness with a small hint of sea salt equals yumminess!).

Cookie dough golf balls!

7. Bake them for 18 to 20 minutes (I baked mine for 18 min). Once baked transfer cookie sheet onto a wire rack and cool for about 10 minutes, you then will move each cookie to a different wire rack to cool a little bit more (I let cool for about 2 minutes and then I couldn't wait any longer!).