Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's not much that evokes memories of childhood and can make you salivate at the same time... but chocolate chip cookies fit the bill. I grew up making chocolate chip cookies with my daddy, and it's one of my fondest memories. I found a recipe several years ago that I tweaked a little that became my Triple Chocolate Cranberry Cookies - and I get a lot of compliments on that cookie. So, I decided to tweak it some more this past Christmas for my chocolate chip cookies that I make every holiday season, and I was hooked! They came out amazing. Dark chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, pecans, and a little espresso in intensify the chocolate, and oh my goodness!

1 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking soda
2 tsps cornstarch
1 tsp salt

1 tsp instant espresso
9-10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
9-10 ounces dark chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium-sized bowl mix the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, salt and espresso.

In a large bowl or a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar.

Add the eggs and vanilla; mix well.

Add the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips (and nuts if using them; I prefer pecans in chocolate chip cookies) and stir until evenly distributed. Here's the tip with the chocolate chips - you can use a whole bag of both semi-sweet and dark chocolate, and they are still pretty good. However, there just didn't seem to be enough "cookie" around the chips, so I cut it back to about 3/4 of each bag, and I loved it. Add to your taste.

Use a 1.5-inch cookie scoop to portion cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

I use my index and middle finger to very lightly flatten the tops of the cookies. That helps them bake more evenly and creates a flatter, less rounded top.

Bake cookies 8-10 minutes until just starting to brown at the edges. The tops will likely still look doughy (as shown below).  This is not a bad thing. This will give you beautifully soft pillowy chocolate chip cookies.

Remove cookies from the oven and allow to rest on the cookie sheet about 5 minutes until the cookies set (they will still be warm though). Remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy a warm, soft, pillowy, super melted chocolatey, amazingly delicious cookie! Store in an air-tight container.