Chocolate Meltdown Cookies

I don't do math so good. When I decided that the dinner D and I went to tonight at Pete's Tavern was not up to par and that I ought to make chocolate chip cookies to make up for it, I thought to myself: "I can half a recipe just as easily as I can double it." Yep, that's about right. Instead of half of the chocolate, I used 3/4, 8 oz instead of 6 oz. In my defense, the semi sweet baking bars only come in 8 oz boxes, so I just figured, OK, I don't want to cut up 2 boxes worth and I don't have chocolate chips, I'll just do one box, that's half, right? Hmm...That's why these were super chocolatey. A happy accident. I took this recipe from Bon Appetit, though Martha Stewart's (which Jess and Josh made for dessert on Sat night) is also pretty darn good. Martha's ends up being a bit crunchier in the end, this recipe is more crunch on the outside, chewy in the middle. Definitely worth trying!

"My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies"

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ozs)

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsps vanilla

2 large eggs

12 ozs bittersweet chocolate chopped into chips, or 2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, line baking sheets with parchment (or if you're like me, with aluminum foil and a little butter). Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, set aside. Cream butter with a paddle attachment on your mixer (not the whisk), add sugars and continue to beat for about 2 mins until well blended. Beat in the vanilla and eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. Mix in the chocolate and nuts with a spatula. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating midway, until the cookies are brown at the edges and golden in the center. Let them rest for 1 min. before removing from the baking sheet.

I omitted the nuts, and halfed the recipe (minus my screw up with the chocolate). I cut up chocolate baking squares (which is a pain as my food processor couldn't handle it so I had to do this by hand) and this gave the cookies a more chocolate all-over taste (because some of the chocolate gets flakey) and some nice huge melty chocolate goodness. If I were to do it again, I would put less chocolate in because the cookie part actually tastes pretty amazing. D and I had some with milk and I think I might be keeping the rest for myself (I only made half, remember!).