Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am one of those people who prefer to ease gradually into the holiday season when the time is right, and I can’t bring myself to listen to a single tune of Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. On the other hand, I’ve been planning and preparing for our annual Christmas Eve party since September. There are paper lists floating around the house of ideas for our menu, ingredients and items I look for in the circulars, and I’ve even starting a rough draft of a timeline for the week leading up to the big event.

One long list is dedicated solely to the cookies I plan on making to give to family and friends as the holiday approaches. There are some standards, like buttery, spritz cookies and my favorite Snickerdoodle recipe. I do like to throw some curve balls, though, so I’m doing my best to find unique options that have have “wow factor” while still being traditional enough to spread the holiday cheer.

One can’t go wrong gifting chocolate chip cookies, and I am pretty loyal to the classic Nestle Tollhouse recipe. Still, curiosity got the best of me when I came across a recipe that focused just as much on the texture of the cookie as the flavor.

Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Saveur Magazine

1 cups flour
½ tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
8 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 eggs
½ tablespoon vanilla extract
6 oz. finely shaved bittersweet chocolate

Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl; set aside. In a bowl, beat sugars and butter with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time; beat in vanilla. Add reserved flour mixture, and chocolate. Mix until just combined, then place dough in refrigerator to chill for approximately 45 minutes. Heat oven to 325 degrees and roll dough into 1 tablespoon-sized balls; transfer to parchment paper–lined baking sheets spaced 3″ apart, and flatten. Bake until set, about 15 minutes.

I can appreciate cookies of all textures and even like to mix it up with my holiday line-up. It’s guaranteed there will be soft, chewy cookies; cake-like cookies; even thick and crunchy cookies. This chocolate chip recipe produces practically wafer thin, crispy rounds of buttery bites, each laced with flakes of chocolate that have melted into the dough. Even with what seems to be a large amount of sugar, they’re not overly sweet and, in fact, have the perfect amount of salt that is evident enough without taking this recipe out of the cookie category. Since butter and sugar mostly compose these cookies, they melt into their thin form; keep a close eye on them midway through the baking process and even turn the pan to prevent them from burning.

The end result is a relatively classy, grown-up version of the traditional chocolate chip cookie. They’re unbelievably delicious, and an interesting variation of a classic, but part of me feels there’s no need to fix what’s not broken. I can assure you, I will make these again, and I recommend them; however, I can’t bear to veer from my trusty Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie for holiday gift exchanges.