It started with a dream.
I dreamed that I would one day be able to successfully bake chocolate chip cookies that rivaled the freshly-baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies they served us in the middle school cafeteria. As you can see, the dream started small. Once I realized that dream could be reached by reading and following directions (and not eyeball measuring a cup of flour), I formed a new dream.
I wanted to make a better chocolate chip cookie. For years I tried many, many recipes. It's somewhat alarming how easy it is to fail at a simple cookie. But I did the whole failing thing successfully for nearly three years. After that time, my cousin introduced me to Nestle Tollhouse's chocolate chip cookie recipe. I had turned my nose up to recipes like that in passing because, if you remember, I was trying to make a better chocolate chip cookie. I wanted the perfect chew and perfect crunch.
As it turns out, the recipe she shared ended up being the best homemade cookie I had ever baked.. It was easy and repeatable, and soon I was baking those delicious cookies from memory. Then one day I asked myself, "Is this the best I can do?" Just kidding. One day I didn't have enough flour and vanilla extract for a whole batch, and since a decision had been made for chocolate chip cookies, I needed to deliver (to myself).
I made some modifications using what I had. I halved the recipe. Then I supplemented the itty bitty amount of vanilla I had with almond extract. If you hang around here, you'll note that I like almond extract for everything. But in this scenario, you're not getting an almond punch, you're just bolstering those choco-chip cookie flavors. I forgot to cut the baking soda on accident. I increased the sugar and decreased the flour, and in the spur-of-the-moment decision, I decided to refrigerate the dough before baking. I'd like to say this had something to do with my keen sense of baking protocols, but it may have had more to do with my oven having a serious heating issue. Because it was the latter, google told me that it would be A-ok, and some other recipes even recommended it.
Some unfortunate circumstances yielded the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever baked.
They are the perfect amount of chew and crunch, and the refrigeration method has them looking bakery-ready. A few tweaks and these babies were ready for bake, eat, repeat....and repeat again. So, I give to you my fuss-free chocolate chip cookies. We stopped doing nightly desserts, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't bake these weekly.
This recipe yields around 12 perfect cookies.
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