Chocolate Chip Cookies, 2 Ways- Oatmeal-Date-Chocolate Cookies and Dorie's "My best Chocolate Chip Cookies"

When Dorie said "They're thin and crisp and a bit chewy in the center..", she wasn't kidding about the thin and crisp part. My husband loves chocolate chip cookies. He prefers the refrigerated cookie dough that you slap on the baking sheet, but I wanted to find a great homemade recipe that he would love too. I have made the oatmeal-date cookies before, but my hubby doesn't really like all that other stuff to be going on in his cookie. I am so shocked to say that I didn't love these chocolate chip cookies, Dories, that is. They spread so thin and were so crispy, I have never had that happen before. They looked nothing like the picture in the book. So with the next batch, I stuck the baking sheet in the fridge, as well as the dough, and made sure it was very chilled, so it wouldn't spread as fast. Same result. Hmmm....... don't get me wrong, they were still okay, but not something that I am going to make again. The oatmeal-date variety are great. I will make them again and it is nice to know they don't use an entire stick of butter! (Dorie's cookies below, all other pics are the Oatmeal Date)


Oatmeal-Date-Chocolate Cookies from Health Magazine

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups regular oats

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 lightly beaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pitted dates

3 ounces coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350º. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and add brown sugar. Stir until smooth.

In a medium bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking soda, oats, and salt. Combine the butter mixture with the dry ingredients, and add egg, vanilla, and chopped dates. Fold in bittersweet chocolate. Mix well and spoon mixture by tablespoon-fulls out onto lightly greased (or silicone baking mat–covered) baking sheets.

Bake for 12 minutes, until tops are dry to the touch.

Dorie's-"My best Chocolate Chip Cookies"- from Baking by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped or 2 cups store-bought chips

1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Center a rack in the over and preheat to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment.
Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.

Beat butter for 1 minute on medium speed, until smooth. Add sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and nuts.

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonsfuls onto the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 10 to 12 minutes, or until brown at the edges and golden in the middle; they may be a little soft in the center and that's just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.