Alice's Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies

Alice Medrich is a rock star pastry chef in the San Francisco/Bay Area. She had a wonderful bakery for many years. I even took a class from her once at Sur La Table in Berkeley. Her Cookies and Brownies has been a mainstay in my library for over 10 years and it is well loved. http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Medrichs-Cookies-Brownies-Medrich/dp/0446523828

Pages have started to come out and many of the others are marked with cocoa and butter stains. I had baking supplies left over from the holidays and decided to make cookies for Mike. His favorite are chocolate chip and he also loves peanut butter. I figured I'd use 1/2 and 1/2 since Reese's peanut cups are one of all time favorite candies.

I didn't change much in this recipe because her recipes are amazingly accurate and baking is kind of like chemistry. She spends alot of time getting these recipes perfect so I didn't want to mess around much.

Alice Medrich’s Chocolate Chip Cookies my way

2 1/4 cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar, lump-free
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips

Combine the flour and baking soda in a bowl and mix together thoroughly.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugars and salt. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Let the mixture and the pan cool. Stir in the chocolate chips and the peanut butter chips. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Remove the dough from the refrigerator to soften. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough and place them 3 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake for ~5 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown at the edges and no longer look wet on the top. Rotate baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back about halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Bake for ~5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cookies firm up on the pan for 1 to 2 minutes. Use a metal pancake turner to transfer them to a rack to cool completely before storing or stacking. May be stored in a tightly sealed container for several days.

These cookies are incredibly good. Right off you'll notice that she has you melt the butter rather than cream it with the sugars. She also insists that you chill the dough and not use parchment paper. The temperature is also very important. It is definitely worth it to follow all of her instructions. Her cookies have a near perfect balance of sweetness, crispness and gooeyness. Mike is a total Toll House cookie guy. I think Alice may have converted him. Enjoy!