This is the perfect chocolate chip cookie!! Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside!! Looking over the ingredients list and the measurements of each, I recognized this as your fairly standard, classic chocolate chip cookie recipe--and I expected fairly standard results. I was baking in our second home today, where I have a convection oven (which I remain somewhat unfamiliar with). I don't know if it was the convection oven or something else I'm missing, but these did not turn out to be fairly standard chocolate chip cookies! Rather, they were some of the best I've ever tried. First of all, they stay uniform in shape and size, which is important to me, and they're just the right thickness--not poofy little cakes, and not flat and spread out. They're rich and buttery, with crispy outsides, and a soft but chewey inside. I didn't bother to mix the baking soda in the 2 tsp. hot water, just mixed it in with the flour--I also added 1/2 tsp. salt to heighten flavor. Since 2 tsp. of water was called for that I didn't use, I "upped" the vanilla to a full tablespoon. I also used milk chocolate chips this time around, but that surely can't account for why these were so darn good and so pretty either. I'm so proud of how these turned out and I'll be proud to send them with my husband tomorrow to his meeting. If not "Best Chocolate Chip Cookies," this recipe is certainly ONE of the best!
Some have stated that their cookies were too cakelike, this is caused by the addition of too much flour. To help prevent this, spoon flour into measuring cup, leveling off with knife, rather then dipping cup into flour. Roll dough into walnut size balls. Be careful not to overbake, I decrease my oven temperature to 325 and bake for l0 minutes. I have tried dozens of chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years, this one is far superior to any of them!! Makes 4 dozen.