For years I was a bit of a chocolate chip cookie floozy. Indiscriminate and flaky, I would leap from recipe to recipe. There was an oatmeal one I liked. I tried a couple of recipes handed along from friends. I even made the Toll House or Ghirardelli back-of-the-package recipes now and then.  They were all pretty good.

Then these little wonders came into my life in 2008 and I have never wavered from them since. I can't take much credit for it. I've added my own twists and touches but I can hardly claim this recipe without a salute to its geneology: I got it from Annie's Eats, who adapted it from Blonde Ambition, who adapted it from America's Test Kitchen. Since then, every single time I bring them or give them, I'm asked for the recipe. Like clockwork. Even my Sunday School class of cute little 12-year-olds asked for the recipe.

So I feel confident promising you: you will not regret making these. They are thick and chewy (not cakey), with this spectacular little glossy crust on the outside. I think what makes them so good are a few little differences: the melted butter, the extra egg yolk, the specific method of forming the dough balls and pulling them apart with a rough top surface before baking, and the rotating of the pans midway through baking. They're small details but well worth it. You'll see.

Oh (at the risk of over-selling), the deliciousness ahead of you! I'm a little jealous you still have your first taste of these lovelies in your future: 

Perfect, Can-I-Have-the-Recipe, Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2-3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 Tbsp unsalted (salted is fine, too, if that's what you have) butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla (sometimes I use just 1, depending how sweet I want them)
1 cup milk chocolate chips (I use Cadbury since I have it here in Australia) 
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (Cadbury or other good chocolate)

. . .

Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment (sometimes I skip this). 

Whisk dry ingredients in medium bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugars until combined. Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add dry ingredients and beat/stir just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. (The dough will feel a bit more moist than you might be used to. It's going to be okay, though. It's all part of the larger plan.) 

Roll a scant half-cup of dough into a ball, then pull the ball apart into two equal halves. See how the edges where they separated are jagged?  Rotate the halved dough 90 degrees and, with the jagged surfaces facing up, place the dough onto the cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball. (These are big cookies so I place six per sheet.) Once you've filled both cookie sheets with portions of dough, put them on the upper and lower racks of the oven, trading their positions once halfway through baking (which will be at about 6-7 minutes). Bake until cookies are light golden brown and the edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (about 11-14 minutes total). 

Cool cookies on cookie sheets for a minute or two, until you can lift them without breaking. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. They're divine when they're still a bit warm. I dare you to try not to roll your eyes to heaven when you take a bite. (If you're feeling creative, you can also use coconut or m&ms or nuts or broken pretzel pieces.)