The world’s most perfect dessert: chocolate chip cookies.
What to do when you are given an entire box of stale almond milk chocolate bars?
Chop them up to use in cookies, of course!
I still always use the recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House chocolate chips bag. Why mess with a good thing?
Use an electric beater or mixer stand to cream the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.
Mix in the 2 cups of chopped almond chocolate bars.
Cover the dough and allow it to sit in the refrigerator at least overnight. However, if you can bear it, 36 hours is the perfect amount of refrigerator time for chocolate chip cookie dough. This allows the eggs and butter to really combine with the dry ingredients and create a drier and firmer dough, and as it turns out, this type of dough bakes more consistently. This technique is even used by Toll House themselves, but left out of the original recipe from the 1930s. This original recipe comes from Mrs. Wakefield, owner of Toll House Inn, in Whitfield, Massachusetts, who did in fact refrigerate her dough before baking it.
According to the article:
To put the technique to the test, one batch of the cookie dough recipe given here was allowed to rest in the refrigerator. After 12, 24, and 36 hours, a portion was baked, each time on the same sheet pan, lined with the same nonstick sheet in the same oven at the same temperature.
At 12 hours, the dough had become drier and the baked cookies had a pleasant, if not slightly pale, complexion. The 24-hour mark is where things started getting interesting. The cookies browned more evenly and looked like handsomer, more tanned older brothers of the younger batch. The biggest difference, though, was flavor. The second batch was richer, with more bass notes of caramel and hints of toffee.
Read the full account on how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie and its history, here at the New York Times article, Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie, by David Leite.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Drop cold, rounded spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheets, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. However, I still think these cookies must be enjoyed warm. These cookies went with me to work last Friday to be shared with colleagues.
Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies – Nestle Toll House recipe
In a small bowl, combine 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1 teaspoon baking soda.
Beat 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add 2 large eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Mix in 2 cups of chopped almond candy bars (or 2 cups chocolate chips).
Cover bowl of dough and refrigerate at least overnight*, but 36 hours is the optimal time.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop rounded spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or til golden. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes and then remove to wire racks to cool completely.
*Dough may be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week or 8 weeks in the freezer.
Bluebird Hill Art 