These notes follow the instructions in the recipe.
1. The butter should be liquid and allowed to cool slightly. My microwave will do this in 40 seconds. Adjust the time based on the power of your unit.
2. When heating up your oven, it should be ready to use around the time that the first sheet of cookies are ready to go in. When I first was working on this website my oven was very slow. I had it looked at and repaired and now I can turn on the oven at step 18. Turn on your oven where appropriate to have it ready for the first sheet.
3. If you have a Kitchen Aid or a mixer which has a special bowl then use it at this step instead of the stated medium bowl.
4. I have found that weighing ingredients produces more accurate and consistent results. Once you have made this recipe a number of times you can start the sugars mixing at this stage. However, I have found that doing all the prep first and then mixing the ingredients helps me to remember everything and to get things combined in the right order.
Steps 5 through 9 deal with the dry ingredients. Use the same process as for the sugars. The flour can be all-purpose but I have found that the mixture of bread flour and cake & pastry flour produces a better cookie.
(Just a note that when using Andrea's GF Flour in this recipe the baking time should be increased to about 18 minutes for the first sheet and about 15 minutes for the additional sheets. You will have to play around with the times depending on whether you want a chewy cookie or a crunchy one.)
10. Remember, 4 cups of chips makes an awesome cookie. However do not use less than 2 1/2 cups of chocolate chips if you think that 4 cups is too much! After my daughter asked me, "Where is the dough?", I cut the chips back to 3 cups. This seems to be about right.
I use the Hershey's 50% cacao dark chocolate Chipits.
12. This step is important. This is where technique matters. The melted butter and sugar need to go from a toffee colour to light beige and have a fluffy texture. if the second stage at full speed (10) fails to produce the fluffiness and the beige colour after 3 minutes, slow the speed to 6 for one minute then go back to 10 until you get to the beige fluffy stage. If all this doesn't work just add the eggs and proceed to the next step. The cookies will still be great.
14. I have found that it is important to beat the eggs well with a whisk to introduce lots of air into them before adding them to the sugar mixture. This helps produce a silkier texture than just adding the eggs directly to the mixing bowl. It also ensures that I don't forget the vanilla.
Additionally, I use extra large eggs when I can get them. There isn't really any difference but I find the extra liquid seems to make a better cookie.
17. When adding the chocolate chips set a few aside. I find that as I am getting down to the last few cookies there seems to be fewer chocolate chips in the cookies. This is the time to add these.
20. I get 16 cookies per sheet. If you cannot do this then you will require more parchment paper sheets.
21. You may have to adjust your times for baking depending on the the consistent heat in your oven. The cookies should look puffed up when they come out but should collapse as they cool.
The reason for the slightly longer baking time for the first sheet is that the baking pan is cold and needs to be warmed up. When sliding the second sheet of cookies onto the hot baking pan, do this carefully as it is easy to get a burn. Use your oven mits where practical. Eventually you will get good at this but still practice care when working with the hot baking sheet.
Miscellanea
I think this recipe came from Gourmet Magazine but I am not sure, so I can't give a link to the original source. It came to me from my youngest daughter and I have made some alterations to it by simplifying it in some areas and adding nuances to it in others.
I am working on a chocolate chip cookie work around recipe that my family and I can enjoy. I have developed a good dough but the real challenge has been perfecting refined sugar free chocolate chips. The silver lining is that I am learning an awful lot about chocolate!
You can find links to my sources for equipment, recipes and ingredients here.