Working on chocolate chip cookies

Crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle. And this was not right out of the oven. Almost perfect.

I figured out snickerdoodles. Now it's time for chocolate chip cookies.

The photo above is of my second attempt. The first attempt turned out weird (see the problems listed below) but pretty. The second attempt is very nearly perfect. They'd be better with a better chocolate, but I couldn't find Ghirardelli 60% at the co-op.

I'll gather feedback tonight at a party. And make them again in the middle of the week when I have my co-workers over for a Wii party. But they're pretty close to perfect.

Attempt #1
Sort of a combination of Cook's Illustrated's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies and Smitten Kitchen's crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies

Pretty. But hard.

6 oz (3/4 cup) butter
10 oz (2 cups) flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3.5 oz (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
5.25 oz (3/4 cup, packed) brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 large egg (1.75 oz)
1 large egg yolk (~0.6 oz)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Melt the butter in a pan. Keep it on low heat and swirl it occasionally while watching the color. In the meantime, combine the sugars in a large-ish mixing bowl. When the butter starts to brown, watch carefully and remove from heat before it burns. Pour the butter into the sugars and stir to combine. Touch the mixture to make sure it's just warm (not hot - if it's hot, wait a couple minutes), then add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Stir well and stick the bowl in the fridge for five to ten minutes, or until cool.

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two half-sheets with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and add to the wet ingredients. Stir until all the flour is incorporated. Then stir for another minute (I'm thinking this will develop the gluten and make the cookies chewier). Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Use a #40 portion scoop/disher to plop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet two-inches apart. 12 cookies fit on a standard half-sheet. Bake for 14 minutes (change to 12), and rotate the sheet half-way through. Remove from oven when edges are slightly brown and immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. If they're too soft to move, let them sit on the pan for a minute and then try again.

Store cooled cookies in a container with the lid on loosely. Air-tight will make the cookies stale. So will leaving them out in the open. I don't condone the use of plastic in general, but putting the cookies in a big Ziploc bag and leaving it un-zipped keeps them well, too.

Problems

1. I browned the butter in a nonstick sautee pan and stupidly tried to use my rubber scraper to get the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. This melted a small bit of the silicone scraper, which I can tell (by the weird mouthfeel) made its way into the batter. I can even taste this in the finished cookie. So: brown the butter in a nonstick skillet and use a wooden spoon to scrape off the browned bits. 
2. It was difficult to incorporate the flour into the cool wet ingredients. So: mix everything together, then put it in the fridge.
3. The cookies were delicious (aside from the weird silicone-icity) right out of the oven and 20 minutes later. But now they're hard. So: bake two minutes less. I might end up reducing the amount of flour by 1/4 cup, but I'll see how reducing the baking time works first.
4. I don't feel comfortable letting other people eat these because of the silicone issue. So this is the first batch of cookies I've had to throw away. I'm shedding a little tear inside about this.

The dough for my second attempt. Delicious, delicious dough.

Second attempt

6 oz (3/4 cup) butter

10 oz (2 cups) flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3.5 oz (1/2 cup) granulated sugar

5.25 oz (3/4 cup, packed) brown sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 large egg (1.75 oz)

1 large egg yolk (~0.6 oz)

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Melt the butter in a nonstick skillet. Keep it on low heat and swirl it occasionally while watching the color. In the meantime, combine the sugars in a large-ish mixing bowl and the flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate, medium bowl. 

When the butter starts to brown (you can smell this happening, and I recommend using a spoon to kind of scoop up the liquid butter and check the color, since the nonstick skillet bottom is dark), watch carefully and remove from heat before it burns. Pour the butter into the sugars and stir to combine. 

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two half-sheets with parchment paper.

Touch the butter-sugar mixture to make sure it's just warm (not hot - if it's hot, wait a couple minutes), then add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture, then add the chocolate chips. Stir well and stick the bowl in the freezer for ten minutes, or until cool to the touch. 

Use a #40 portion scoop/disher to plop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet two-inches apart. 12 cookies fit on a standard half-sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, and rotate the sheet half-way through. Remove from oven when edges are slightly (seriously, only slightly) brown and immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Store cooled cookies in a container with the lid on loosely. Air-tight will make the cookies stale. So will leaving them out in the open. I don't condone the use of plastic in general, but putting the cookies in a big Ziploc bag and leaving it un-zipped keeps them well, too.