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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies




Next up: David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

David Lebovitz is incredible. His ice cream and sorbet recipes are always wonderfully creative and delicious. So, I just had to include his recipe for Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies in my Great CCC Quest.


His recipe is different from most because it calls for salted butter, whereas other recipes usually ask you to use unsalted butter. Now, I'll confess that I pretty much always use salted butter or margarine when I bake. I simply adjust for it by omitting the amount of salt in the recipe. However, DL's cookie recipe further intrigued me because it tells you to use the salted butter AND add even more salt to the dough. Well, I just had to see how these cookies would turn out.



The cookie dough itself was not too sticky and was easy to mold into balls. However, it still spread a lot in the oven resulting in very large cookies. Later I realized that you were supposed to chill the dough, preferably overnight (oops). I'm not sure if this would actually make a difference, but it's something to think about.

The finished cookies were very thin, crispy on the edges and soft in the middle. As for the taste, they were really very good. The added salt was just enough to make your mouth water with every bite. They weren't as thick as I would have liked, but I think chilling the dough might have helped out with that. I would definitely make these cookies again. I also bet that they'd make some great cookie ice cream sandwiches.

Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (from David Lebovitz)

1 stick salted butter, at room temperature
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. flaky sea salt or kosher salt
1 1/3 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Beat the butter and sugars just until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the beaten butter until combined, then mix in the chocolate chips.

Cover and chill the batter until firm. (It's preferable to let it rest overnight). Yep, forgot this step.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Form the cookie dough into round about the size of a large unshelled walnut. Place the mounds evenly spaced apart on the baking sheets, and press down the tops to flatten them so they are no longer domed and the dough is even.

Bake the cookies for ten minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies look about set, but are not browned.

Remove from the oven and quickly tap the top of each with a spatula then return to the oven for 2-5 more min. until the tops of the cookies are light golden brown.

Notes:
1. David's original recipe called for adding some toasted nuts, but I left these out due to allergies.
2. Since my dough wasn't chilled, there was no need to flatten it down. I just baked it and they spread out on their own.

Great CCC Quest of 2011:
Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
Baked Bakery's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Allrecipes' "Best" Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is linked to:
A Little Birdie Told Me
These Chicks Cooked
Made it on Monday
CCC Round-Up

24 comments:

  1. Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!
    Thanks for sharing, you're an inspiration!

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  2. They sound yummy! I'll have to give them a go

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  3. I love DL, but haven't tried his cccs...will have to give these a shot! They look delish, Lisa!

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  4. I didn't actually know that salted vs. unsalted made a difference. Good to know! These look yummy!

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  5. Now this is a great combination...one of my favorites--Salt and Chocolate!

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  6. Do you have a CCC in the lineup that uses vanilla pudding mix? I have recently come across a recipe with that in the ingredient list and am making them sometime this week. These cookies look delicious. Yummy!

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  7. Looks great! What a wonderful quest you're on! :)

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  8. Hey Lisa! These look tasty, I just now got your comment on my lemon and white chocolate chip cookies. They really are great, you should try them. I'm going to try these salted butter chocolate chip, thanks for the recipe!

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  9. I love the idea of an ice cream cookie sandwich :)

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  10. ooooo Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
    Yum! I wish I had some now!

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  11. Lisa and friends,
    Here's a link to what I call the "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie." They have a tiny bit of lemon juice and equal parts white and brown sugar. There is always the debate whether to add walnuts or leave them out. this recipe calls for them.
    ~Tracy

    http://bit.ly/lLZl7n

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  12. Being the cookie monster that I am...these look divine and I wish I could have a few right now. Thanks much for sharing -

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  13. I used to always use salted butter and not omit the butter and my cookies always tasted good too. Now I prefer unsalted, but this recipe looks like it is worth trying.

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  14. Hmmmm, I'll have to try these. I recently made Cooks Illustrated Chocolate Chip cookies and they were really good but I'm still searching for that perfect recipe.

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  15. This sound delish! Love DL's recipes

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  16. I always use salted butter, too and keep the salt in the recipe as well. It's really not that much and I've never thought they were too salty. I do think a chilled dough would have made them thicker, though...I have a few recipes like that and have learned the hard way! ha. They look good!

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  17. I've never met a chocolate chip cookie I didn't like. :) These look really good- They're just like I like them- with crunchy edges and soft in the middle. I'm bookmarking for later!

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  18. that sounds delicious! seems like you're on a cookie rampage!

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  19. This looks really good, and I appreciate that you added in that you forgot a step and how it turned out. Stumbled this post so I can come back to it later. Thanks.

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  20. From what I understand, chilling the dough first DOES make a difference. I'm always too impatient.

    And I always use salted butter for cookies. And add the additional tsp or whatever of salt that it calls for. Hmm.

    Amy @ A Little Nosh

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  21. Thanks for linking up to Made it on Monday Lisa!

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  22. Lisa, I'm with you and David Lebovitz -- quite often, I'll use salted butter in recipes, especially for sweets. Like you, I'll sometimes reduce the amount of salt, but in other cases, I don't -- sometimes the salt boost, like the one in these cookies, is the minor element that plays a huge role in perfectly calibrating the sweet/salty ratio that takes a treat from good to great!

    Thank you so much for linking up to "A Little Birdie Told Me..."

    Jenn

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