Cook's Illustrated's chocolate chip cookie recipe

These cookies are billed "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies" by Cook's Illustrated, those kitchen perfectionists I've come to admire.  So I filed this recipe away and had high expectations for them.  I recall watching these cookies being made on the PBS cooking show and the technique is really interesting - it's all done by hand, with lots of whisking and timing involved.  This recipe also uses melted butter, which has been rumored to be the key to an amazing chocolate chip cookie.  I've been wanting to test that theory for a while.

Since this blog is essentially a journal of my kitchen experiments, I try recipes I'm interested in and see if they're as good as they sounded or looked.  I've discovered a lot of terrific recipes already thus far but not everything is a home run.  Did this one earn its billing as the "perfect" chocolate chip cookie?  In my humble opinion, it did not.

I think this is a matter of personal preference.  There's a deep caramel flavor to the cookie that maybe I'm just not accustomed to.  This comes from melting the butter until it gets golden brown and nutty.  A combination of whisking and resting works the batter until it's thick, smooth, and rich.  The texture of the cookies is nice - crisp on the edges, soft in the center, but the flavor was not what I expected, or liked very much.  When it comes to chocolate chip cookies, I found that I much prefer the recipe from David Lebovitz or say some whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. 

Making a great chocolate chip cooking is a bit like cooking chicken or eggs.  It's such common food but difficult to nail.  I'll chalk this one up as a great learning experience.  The technique in making these cookies is really interesting.