Chocolate Chip Cookies v3

Ta-dah! Hoho, the 3rd cookie recipe in my quest (for the perfect cookie) has finally appeared! I've been wanting to make this for quite awhile now, but got distracted by all the muffins and brownies, hehe. To recap:

• Version 1 was really good! It smelled amazing during baking, and the cookie it self was not too bad, Not quite perfection yet, but pretty good. The cookie was chewy, and the chocolate pieces were really good!
  
• Version 2 was not so nice. It purported to be a crunchy cookie (and I like crunchy cookies!) but turned out too dry.

And here, we have version 3! :D How did this turn out???

What you need:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
113g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar (I used caster sugar)
3/4 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, at room temperature, lightly beaten
200g chocolate, cut into 12 inch chunks

What you do:

1. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Using a standing mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugars on low speed until it is smooth and lump free, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the vanilla and egg, and beat in low speed for 15 seconds or until fully incorporated. Do not overbeat. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. On low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat until just incorporatedSpoon dough into balls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets covered with baking paper. (makes about 23 3-inch round cookies) You may have to do one more than one round.
   
5. Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until golden-brown around the edges, turning the sheet from back to front halfway through.
6. Remove the sheet from the oven and carefully slide the parchment directly onto a work surface. When the cookies are set, remove them to a cooling rack. Wait at least 5 minutes before serving or 20 minutes before storing in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Perhaps its a good thing that Hadi and Justin almost never see my ingredient lists. Justin's eyes boggled when he saw how much butter I was putting into the dough. Hadi would probably have told me to put in more sugar though :P Luckily, he wasn't around.

This recipe comes from another food blog, Words To Eat By. The author claims that these are the best ever cookies. I fully understand that the perfect cookie is different for different people :) But I was curious enough about this, since it seemed like she made a lot of effort in refining it.

In some of my "reading" I discovered that using white sugar results in a crunchy cookie, while brown sugar will make it more crisp, which is why this recipe uses more brown sugar I guess, since she wanted to make a chewy cookie. Also, the dough should be chilled to prevent it from rising too much, apparently. The mixer is also used at low speed, in order to prevent too much air being incorporated. Hoho, I know some stuff :D

As for this cookie, I rather thought they were very similar to version 1 actually, Of course, I haven't had that in awhile (since last year!), but they were chewy and had a LOT of chocolatey goodness. Eating it while it was still warm from the oven was gooooooood! *drool* To be honest, its not really my "perfect" cookie, but its really quite okay. I just want something more like Famous Amos ;) Ah well, the quest goes on!

Oops, I realised I forgot to put in the quote of the day for the Walkers' Chilli Chicken, heh :P So here you go :D

Quote of the day: I never met a piece of chocolate I didn't like.