Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Up until pretty recently, most of my pregnancy cravings have been for savory, salty things -- anything barbecued, pickles (how typical, right?), eggs. But last Friday I got a craving for chocolate chip cookies that just would not go away until I made a batch. I always have all the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies on hand, so to find a recipe I turned to a cookbook I knew wouldn't let me down: Martha Stewart's Cookies. There are three or four chocolate chip cookie recipes in that cookbook, but I turned to the one I knew I would like the best: the cakey version. I loooove cakey cookies.

Can I tell you how hard it was to keep myself from eating the raw cookie dough? Despite the whole "pregnant women shouldn't eat raw eggs" thing, I actually did sneak a couple bites of the dough. I couldn't resist. I'm so terrible.

These cookies marked Andrew's first foray into the world of chocolate chip cookies, and as you can imagine, he absolutely loved them. If I hadn't limited him to one, he would have eaten almost as many as his father did -- and that's really saying something. I wish I had a picture to show you!

We all loved these cookies. They're everything you want a chocolate chip cookie to be -- chocolatey, sugary, and absolutely irresistible. As Martha herself would say, these cookies are a very, very "good thing"!

Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Martha Stewart's Cookies; recipe also found here

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips (I used a combination of both)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

2. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

3. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges and set in the center, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.