Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was all alone at home when all the others went to the Aquarium. I almost finished all my work around 4.30 and was sitting idle with nothing much to do. As we had plans of eating out at a famous Japanese restaurant there was no need for any dinner prep work. The place was so still and silent which made feel very lonely and dull. I sometimes used to wish that I could have time of my own without anyone around me. That never happened. This day was something close to that but I started to feel so bored. After much thinking I thought I will bake some cookies and have it with my tea. I always prefer crispy cookies and not the chewy ones atleast with my tea I want something crispy and crunchy !!

I almost fell in love with baking cookies. One thing that interests me in cookie baking is that it it takes very less time and you can make a number of variations based on your taste. I did some research on making crispy cookies, high moisture content in the cookies causes the cookies to be chewy. So baking time and temperature plays an important role in deciding the texture of the cookies. The amount of dough you drop decides whether it will be thick or thin cookies. So with all the tips I got I baked some delicious crispy cookies. They are perfect ones with a cup of tea !!

Ingredients

All-purpose flour - 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 cup
Firmly packed brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Granulated sugar - 1/3 cup
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Semisweet chocolate chips - 1 cup
Pecans (optional) - 1/2 cup

Preparation

• Melt and cool the butter to room temperature.
• Coarsely chop the pecans.

Method

• Preheat oven to 300F.
• To a bowl add butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed,until well blended.
• Add 3 tablespoons water and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth, scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
• In another medium size bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt.
• Stir the dry mixture into the butter mixture until well incorporated.
• Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.
• Drop dough in 1 tablespoon portions, 2 inches apart, onto greased cookie sheets.
• Bake in the oven until cookies are lightly browned around 18 to 20 minutes.
• Using a spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

My Notes

• If the cookies start to break when it is hot let stand on pan to firm up to 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.
• Firmly packed brown sugar is a way to measure the correct amount of sugar.Brown sugar is kept moist and the water content will vary according to the environmental humidity, it is difficult to measure the exact same amount when fluffy and moist compared to when dry and more compact.you use the back of a spoon to press the sugar down into the measuring cup to pack it in and remove all the air trapped by the moisture (source: wiki)
• This measures yields about 30 - 32 cookies.

 These crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies proudly enters my own event  Virtual Party - Chocolaty Dreams