Trisha Yearwood’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was growing up my Mimi would only bake during the summer on special occasions like say for example, my birthday. Very special. Heating up the oven made the house too hot. I have learned this fact more than ever this summer. In our new house the kitchen is in the center which makes the whole house hot instead of just one end. I guess you could say the kitchen is the center of our home. Isn’t that sweet? Anyhoo, so I have been limiting my baking a bit if you hadn’t noticed.
I recently bought a copy of Trisha Yearwood’s new cookbook, Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen. I saw her promote the book on several morning talk shows and thought it might be worth a try. I love Southern cooking.
I thought I would start off with something simple out of the book today because we are going out of town for the weekend. I’m very excited about leaving. We have not been away since 07-07-07, easy to remember. But, oddly enough we have lived in three houses since that time which was hardly a vacation. I’m never moving again. Wait let me think, yes, I’m never moving again.
The cookies were very straight forward. I did have to think for a second on how they noted the amount of butter. I tried to simplify it when I copied the recipe. I used my trusty scoop to drop the cookies and mine took 10 minutes to bake. They did not spread like I thought they would so I was able to fit a lot on a pan. The cookie I tried had that sweet/salty thing going on. The salt really brings out the chocolate. They differ from your standard Toll-house recipe in that there is less of a caramely brown sugar taste and more chocolate flavor. They are chewy once they cool. The chewiness can depend on how much you work your batter.

Give these a whirl. You never know, they might just become your favorite chocolate chip cookie.

Trisha Yearwood’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 cup butter (10 2/3 tablespoons), room temperature

¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (6-ounce package) semisweet chocolate chips

Place the oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F.
Using the electric mixer, beat the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla together until smooth.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together and, with the beater running, slowly add to the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Carefully remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container. Yields 3-4 dozen.