Chocolate Chip Cookies

Introduction:
Chocolate can be molded into any shape.  To make sure the chocolate have a good appearance and consistency, chefs temper the melted chocolate (or prime it with the desirable stable crystals of cocoa fat).  To temper chocolate, one must: (1) heat the chocolate thoroughly to melt all of it's fat crystals (2) cool it to somewhat form a new set of starter crystals and (3) carefully heat it again to melt the unstable crystals so that only the desirable crystals remain.  The stable starter crystals will direct the development of the dense, hard crystal network when the chocolate finally cools and solidifies.

The key to the best cookies is to let the dough sit for a while before it's baked.  By resting the dough, you can give the dough a reconstruction phase before it starts baking.  In doing this, the dough becomes "whole" in that all the ingredients come together as one.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups unsifted flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs 
• 2 cups Chocolate chips

Steps:

• In a large bowl, stir flour with baking soda and salt, and set aside
• Beat the butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy
• Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until incorporated
• Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture
• Stir in chocolate chips
• Let the dough sit for a while (60 - 90 minutes) and preheat oven 
• On a large cookie sheet, drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet
• Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown 

Results: 

The cookies were amazing!! The dough got a little harder consistency while sitting for the 75 minutes, which made it really easy to put them on the cookie sheet.  Also, after the cookies came out of the oven, I added a little sea salt to the top, which made them absolutely amazing!