Big, Bad, Wolf Chocolate Chip Cookies

These thick and chewy cookies are tasty served warm from the oven or cooled. To achieve a chewy texture, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool. The sea salt complements the sweetness of the cookies. For a fun variation, you can substitute cinnamon chocolate chips for the semi-sweet chips in the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and slightly cooled
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt (NOT finely ground)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl; set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Stir in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredient until just combined. Stir in the chips.

3. Form scant 1/4 cup portions of dough into balls. Holding the dough balls with fingertips, pull into two equal halves. This will create a rough edge on half of the dough. Rotate halves so that the craggy surface is exposed. Now, join halves together at their base to form a single cookie. Don’t smooth the dough’s uneven surface – this will give them a nice texture when they are finished baking. Place the shaped dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with a bit of sea salt. (The dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 2 months.)

4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden. The centers should still be soft and puffy. Start checking the oven at 13 minutes. The cookies should achieve the desired consistency between 15 and 18 minutes. (Frozen dough may require extra time in the oven.) Cool the cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in an airtight container.

recipe by Cristina Paul