There’s a perfect recipe out there, somewhere, and one day I will find it. I thought I was going to when I finally had the bread flour to get at Alton Brown’s recipe, but once this batch’s honeymoon phase of gooey warmth was over, I didn’t see much difference between this recipe and the recipe we used in my middle school Life Skills class. I’ve produced cookie upon cookie with that recipe, and almost each time they come out differently. These cookies were flat (though this could have had to do with the deceptive oven temp), and not sufficiently chocolate-chip-cookie chewy. And though it instructed me to put six cookies on each sheet, I didn’t listen, because 1. Why should the cookies be coming out that big? and 2. Who has real estate like that? Or time for multiple batches? So the majority of them came out squished against each other, and it took some luck to find two suitable for blog photos….sigh. In conclusion, I’m still on the search for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. Until then, this one from Joy the Baker from Alton Brown will suffice.

Directions
Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda onto a paper plate. Pour the butter into your stand mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.

This recipe’s “different” because it has you melting the butter. Much to Joy the Baker’s intrigue.

Using the paper plate as a slide, gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to “stir” and add the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for 1 hour.

Unfortunately, the look of your dough will not help you gauge the quality of your end result…unless you did something very wrong.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.

Scoop the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, slide the parchment with the cookies onto a cooling rack and wait at least 5 minutes before devouring.

If it looks like I forgot to take a picture of my dough balls before putting them in the oven, it’s because I did.

I insist on the addition of walnuts…that is all.