CI's Choc Chip Cookies

Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there!!   I know you're all great, but I think mine's the best-est :)

Love you Mom!!  Don't worry, the bear's not real :)

In honor of my mom, who never let me eat raw eggs (aka cookie dough), I figured it would be appropriate to post about some chocolate chip cookies...  the best chocolate chip cookies?  That's what Cook's Illustrated claimed, and I had to find out for myself!

A fan of America's Test Kitchen (at least, when I used to watch cooking shows on tv), I love their scientific approach to finding out which things worked best and telling you why!  It's the why that helps you learn in the kitchen, giving you tools to become a better cook/baker/recipe creater/etc.  Cook's Illustrated is also my first stop when it comes to buying new kitchen equipment for reviews!

Cook's Illustrated-approved

Ok, the cookies.  I followed Cook's Illustrated's recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookies, browning butter (most amazing smell ever.), weighing my flour, using CI-approved semisweet chocolate chips...  and threw in some of my own tests ;)  I just can't leave well enough alone!

There was a reason though...  I was going to use my (very well seasoned) stoneware, as I do for pretty much everything else, and wasn't sure if this would affect their baking.  My first batch was with parchment paper, the second was not.  I liked the way they baked up without, so I continued on and then tried out a smaller cookie.

Does size matter?

The winner?  The smaller cookie, at least in my book.   I'm wondering if this had to do with the stoneware or my bigger cookie scoop (the silver one in the above photo).  Looking at the pictures it appears that my bigger scoop is a #20 and they called for a #24...  oops!

Of course, both sizes of cookies were delicious (I tested both, just to make sure).   And don't tell my Mom, but I tasted some of the dough...  I know, I know, but it contained browned butter!  Browned butter!!  One of the more amazing smells your kitchen can create.  Browned butter should definitely be used more often.  And I continue to be enamored with the melting properties of the Ghiradelli 60% bittersweet chips.

Who can resist a warm chocolate chip cookie?  Clearly, not I.

Have you tried CI's recipe for chocolate chip cookies?  Or have another that you think is better?  I might need to do some more testing...