Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let me tell you something: adding a few big crunchy crystals of salt to something sweet brings it to a whole new level of deliciousness.  This has been abundantly proven with salted caramels, and I’ve just discovered that it works wonders with chocolate chip cookies, too.

I’m of the mind that if you’re going to eat junk food it must fulfill two requirements:

• Make it yourself.  That way you know exactly what’s in it, you can tweak it so it is exactly as you like it, and you can eat it at its utmost freshest.  In this case, that’s straight out of the oven.  Check!
• Taste really good and be totally worth it.  Which is pretty much taken care of by the above step.  Warm chewy chocolate chip cookie flecked with salt crystals.  Check!

I got the idea for these from the famous NY Times chocolate chip cookie recipe.  If you have seen the recipe in the past you’ll know that it’s uber fussy.  I mean – 2 cups minus 2 Tablespoons of flour?  Two types of specialty flour?  I can get on board with luxury chocolate chips but beyond that point…um, I’m skeptical of the payoff.

I’m kind of lazy that way.

But don’t worry – my laziness involves a major payoff!  I’ve simplified the recipe and retained the secret ingredient that makes these cookies so incredibly addictive: the large crystals of salt.  That’s really the main thing going on here, and it is even more fun if you’ve recently received, as a gift, a jar full of pink Himalayan salt crystals!

Please don’t forget to eat these for breakfast with a cup of black coffee.  Or as dessert with a glass of cold milk.  Tell your friends you’re making these so they demand a sample to prevent yourself from eating the entire (large) batch.

Cooking tips:

1. Use coarse grain salt, not regular.  That is the key to this recipe.
2. Add the salt to the dry ingredients, not the wet.  You don’t want to give the salt lots of time in with the wet stuff or it will start to dissolve.
3. Flatten the tops of the cookies before baking so that you have a platform to sprinkle a few additional grains of large crystal salt upon.
4. Take the cookies out when just their edges are turning golden brown. You do not want the cookies to be golden brown throughout or they will be overdone and very crispy.  The key is to leave the middle just a little bit undercooked looking so that upon cooling it is nice and chewy.

Enjoy!

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3 2/3 cup unbleached white baking flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse grain salt  (very important, don’t use regular salt!)
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 to 1 bag of good chocolate chips (I prefer a half a bag of 60% dark chocolate Ghirardelli, but please customize this according to your preference)

Preheat oven to 350, line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Sift dry ingredients together, including salt, ensure there are no lumps.
Cream butter and sugars together, then add eggs one at a time, then vanilla extract.  Beat until mixture is well incorporated and fluffy.
With beaters on low (to prevent a POOF of flour in your face), gradually add dry ingredients to butter-sugar-egg mixture.  Mix until just incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips by hand to avoid breaking them into bits with the mixer.
Scoop golf-ball sized mounds of dough with a spoon and arrange 3 inches apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment.  The cookies will spread during cooking.
Gently flatten the top of each cookie so that you can sprinkle 4-5 large salt crystals on top of each one.
Bake for 12 minutes or until just turning golden brown around the edges.  You do not want the cookies to be golden brown throughout or they will be overdone and very crispy.  The key is to leave the middle just a little bit undercooked looking so that upon cooling it is nice and chewy.