Buying love with cookies

'Tis the season for chocolate, mulled wine, pine-smelling goodies, and holiday-themed sweaters!  I come to you today with a simple cookie recipe: Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  I started making them this summer during my fun-employment and D and I ate a couple dozen in two days.  I brought them to a 4th of July BBQ and they vanished by the end of the night. A few weeks into my new job, I brought them to a potluck lunch and once again they were a hit.  In fact, they were loved so much that last week my boss asked me at our holiday lunch if I had made them and when I said I had brought gingerbread cake instead, she stomped her foot with displeasure. Wow! These cookies are getting in people's heads. 

These past few weeks we've had a handful of holiday parties with co-workers and friends and I feel lucky to be able spread cheer with these magic cookies.  In a new city the holidays can feel foreign and if it weren't for the people we've met who now consider us family, I don't know where we would be - oh wait, probably eating cookies on the couch by ourselves.  As we close out this year, I feel thankful for the friends, new and old, who help keep me sane, and for family who we will either be with in person or in spirit.  May your holidays be warm, bright and full of cookies!

Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies (via Smitten Kitchen via Not Without Salt)

Yield: 18 - 24 cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (I usually use brown sugar instead)

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar (I leave out the 2 tablespoons)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

34 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 pound semi- or bittersweet chocolate cut into 1/2-inch chunks with a serrated knife (I cheat and use the Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chunks)

Flaky sea salt, to finish

Heat oven to 360 degrees F (yes 360, not 350!) and line baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, roughly 5 minutes.  Add egg and vanilla, beating until incorporated, and scraping down the bowl as needed.  Beat in sea salt (not the flaky salt) and baking soda until combined.  Then slowly add flour and mix until combined.  The dough will look crumbly at this point - that's ok.  With a silicone spatula, add the chocolate chunks.  If the dough is still too crumbly, then add a tablespoon of cold water.

Scoop cookies into 1 1/2 tablespoon mounds, spacing them apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with a few flakes of sea salt.  Bake for 11 or 12 minutes, until golden on the outside but still very gooey and soft inside.  Once out of the oven, let them rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Insider tip - I like to make a double batch and I form half the batter into scoops and then freeze them on a baking sheet until solid.  I've baked these right from the freezer when having people over or just wanting a couple for D and I to have when the craving hits!