Double chocolate chip cookies

I reached cookie nirvana on Friday.

These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. This is what I expect from the perfect cookie, what I have never been able to replicate in my kitchen. This cookie is chewy, chunky and fudgy. My other chocolate chip cookies were pretty good if I can say so myself but these are perfect. In taste, texture, size. And they didn't turn flat a few minutes out of the oven. Don't ask me why or how. I've tried all the tricks. Freezing. Resting the dough for 24, 36, 48 hours. I've tried adding more or less butter. I've used different kinds of sugar. I've tried underbaking and they turned out... well, underbaked. While baking these I even added the egg later than I should have. It mattered not, still perfection.

The recipe did not seem so very different from others I had used. There were the usual promises of the best cookie ever, but I wasn't convinced. I had seen beautiful photos before and my end product never turned out looking quite the same. So I can't tell you why they turned out so good. What I can say is that just writing about the lack of inspiration I was feeling on Friday, putting it out there, got my creative juices flowing again. I literally ran home from work and baked these beauties in the two hours I had to pack, pick up the kids and leave for the week end. I barely had ten seconds to take a couple of pictures. They do not do these cookies justice. Make them yourself, you'll see.

These are brownies and chocolate chip cookies all in one. They made the perfect gift for the perfect week end. Nature leaves me speechless, by the way.

Please click to zoom...it is worth it, I promise

You forget that a few hours from a city, even in an overcrowded country like Italy, there is such beauty.

Thank you for your comments, for sharing your similar experiences and for your support on my last post. I know that for every comment left there are at least ten more of you out there that feel the same way. And last but not least, check out my blogroll. I finally updated it a few weeks ago with some of my favorite blogs.

Recipe adapted from A Full Measure of Happiness.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup of sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened)

1 egg

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (or chips)

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix together the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, cocoa powder and egg until well combined. Add the flour, baking soda, chocolate chunks and pecans and mix well. The resulting cookie dough will be quite firm. Preheat oven to 350°C. Roll out into balls, flatten and place on a baking tray covered with baking paper. This recipe should yield 14 large cookies. Leave enough space between the cookies to let them grow. Bake for 10 minutes, pull out and let cool on tray. This is important for them to continue baking.