So what do you do when its 85 degrees in the Pacific Northwest and its too hot to garden, cook, shop or hike? You pack up some cold beers, a bottle of Pinot Grigio, some chocolate chip cookies, grab your friends and go river floating. That’s what we did last weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon of soaking up some Vitamin D, gazing into the sky, combating the one or other mini riffle which provided some welcome cold water showers and noshing on some good looking and good tasting cookies.

I usually don’t have lots of luck with my chocolate chip cookies, they always come out a little bit too sweet, super flat and “wrinkly but this recipe turned out “Christmas/hostess gift worthy cookies” these chocolate chip cookies have it ALL – the looks, the taste and a chewy consistency!

Ingredients:

• 2 and ¼ cup all-purpose flour, spoon & leveled
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and ½ teaspoons cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (not too soft)
• ¾ cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Directions:

1. Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a medium size bowl, whisk the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft. Fold in the chocolate chips. Don’t over mix or your cookies will get flat. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.
3. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside. Roll the dough into balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough each or use an ice cream scooper. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will allow the balls to stay intact. Roll the cookie dough balls to be taller rather than wide, to ensure the cookies will bake up to be thick.  Put 8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips/chunks on top of the dough balls.
4. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. Do not bake longer than 12 minutes. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Guten Appetit!