Chocolate-chip Cookies

My first connection with chocolate-chip cookies was at Subway. I like these cookies so much that I never order a subway without these cookies. I have gone alone many a times to Subway to eat a loaf and the chocolate chip cookies all by myself. Hence, when I started baking, this was the first ever cookies that I made. By far, I have made them so many times (and gifted to a lot of my friends) and never got bored of the taste. 

I remember the first time I made these cookies was in a very small Morphy Richards OTG that could bake only two cookies in one batch and I had to bake these cookies for almost half a day (9 batches! Can you believe it?). This gave me sufficient reason to buy a new oven. I grabbed this opportunity totally and got myself a great looking, gorgeous Samsung CQ138S and have been totally in love with it from the day it arrived at my home. Now, I can bake all these cookies in just two batches. Life is so much more beautiful with  yummy food and sexy gadgets.

These soft and chewy cookies need a combo of white and brown sugar. It is easy to find brown sugar these days in India, you can get Bluebird Dememera sugar at your nearest grocery store or D Mart, Hypercity. Hence, there is abosolutely no challenge in making these cookies at home.

Chocolate-chip Cookies

Here's what you gonna need to make Chocolate-chip Cookies

113 gms/½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (at room temperature)

45 gms/ ¼ cup caster (superfine) sugar

100 gms/ ½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
175 gms/ 1½ cups all purpose flour 

½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt (leave the salt if you are using salted butter)
175 gms/ 1 cup chocolate chips
50 gms/ ¼ cup walnuts, roasted and chopped (optional) 

Yield - 24 cookies

Here's how you gonna make it

Preheat your oven to to 170° C/ 325° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until nice and creamy using your hand mixer.
• Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add egg and beat in the batter until combined. In case you are doubling the recipe, add one egg at a time and beat.
• Add vanilla extract and you guessed it right, continue to beat.
• In another bowl, sift all purpose flour, baking soda and salt (if using unsalted butter) and stir. Add chocolate chips and walnuts and stir.
• Mix the dry ingredients in the butter and egg mixture and fold it with the help of a rubber spatula giving your hands a nice workout. Fold the dry ingredients until it is combined together with the wet ingredients.
• If the dough is very soft, keep it in the refrigerator for 30 - 40 minutes.
• With the help of an ice-cream scoop or using two spoons, scoop out the dough into the baking sheet keeping a gap of 3-4 inches between the cookies as these will spread while baking.
• Bake for about 10 -14 minutes or until the cookies edges are golden brown. Let it cool completely on wire rack.
• Store these cookies in an air tight container for few days.

Variations:- 

You can do so many variations of these cookies. Few of these variations could be - 

• All chocolate cookies - Substitute 15 gms/ 1tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder for the equal amount of flour.
• Mocha - Use coffee essence or 1 tbsp of strong black coffee instead of vanilla extract.
• Hazelnuts - Substitute whole or coarsely chopped hazelnuts for the equal amount of walnuts.
• Dried fruits - Substitute chcolate chips and walnuts for the equal amount of chopped dried fruits such as raisins, almonds, cranberries, glaced cherries etc.

Hope you will also enjoy making these cookies as much as I did!

Cheers!