The Chocolate Chip Cookie of the Moment

I’m a Tollhouse girl. Always have been. Tollhouse cookies were what mom made, and that’s the chocolate chip cookie that I hold as the standard for all chocolate chip cookies. I do try other cookies though from time to time. Sometimes I’m disappointed, and sometimes I’m surprised. My favorite cookie always seems to change, but right now, it’s the one of the package of Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. It’s pretty similar to the Tollhouse recipe, mostly with the amounts changed. Instead of 3/4 of a cup of sugar and brown sugar, there’s a full cup of each. Instead of one stick of butter there’s 2… okay, maybe they’re not so similar. But they are delicious!

These chocolate chip beauties are a crispy, sometimes chewy, buttery cookie. That should tell you right there if you think you’d like them. They are not a cakey cookie in any sense of the word which is good- I’m not a fan of cakey cookies. If I wanted cakey, I’d make cake- which I do happen to love. These cookies spread a lot- they end up as a very flat cookie, with the chocolate chips and walnuts clearly announcing their presence. Whether they are more chewy or crispy depends on the baking time. Some of the cookies I took out earlier, when the dough in the center still seemed undone. Those I left on the sheets for another minute to finish baking. These ones are the more chewy ones. Some I left in the oven until they appeared to be finished-these ones are the more crispy ones. Stored all together in a rubbermaid container though, they’re all a nice balance of chewy and crispy.

These are an excellent version of chocolate chip cookies. I have thought about replacing one of the sticks of butter with shortening to see how the cookie changes, but I haven’t been able to find the new Crisco yet, so I will wait until I find it to try that. Crispy, buttery, and studded with chocolate and walnuts, these are about worthy of Tollhouse status. The recipe for Ghirardelli’s Chocolate Chip Cookies is in the Recipe Trove.