Proper American chocolate chip cookies

This week marks one year since our arrival in beautiful New Zealand. Where has the time gone?

Lake Rotoiti, South Island, New Zealand - hubby on the dock

I didn't work for the first eight months we were here. A failed experiment at being a housewife. There were some good parts. I got to sleep in every day, read a lot and spend heaps of time covered in flour in the kitchen.

For the first three months our kitchen, along with the rest of the house, was very utilitarian. All our stuff was in a shipping container taking its sweet-ass time crossing the Pacific.

I had just a few kitchen essentials I picked up at K-mart, which, by the way, was not the big box store I expected to make its way to the other side of the world. In my utilitarian kitchen, the essentials included a cookie sheet, a whisk, and a giant mixing bowl.

Those were just the tools I needed for my first baking venture in my tiny New Zealand kitchen: Tara Bench's (aka Tara Teaspoon's) Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This recipe makes a ton of cookies. Thankfully, Jeremy (the hubby) has some very eager baked good recipients in his office. Side note: Yes, they call cookies biscuits here, but a year later I still struggle with that.

Some of the eager cookie recipients enjoying a U.S. Thanksgiving in our tiny NZ house

It was in Jeremy's office that these were termed "proper American cookies."

There are some challenges taking a US recipe and baking it in New Zealand. For one, the oven is in Celsius. The most common temp to bake at in Fahrenheit is 350. It's 180 in Celsius. Okay, easy enough to convert (thank you, Google!).

Then there are the volume measurements, which go by the same name, but are actually different. One cup of sugar weighs 190 grams in the States but 200 grams in metric volume. Therefore the cup sizes are different.

The butter comes in 500 gram blocks instead of four 100-gram sticks in a box. An 11.5 ounce bag of chocolate chips does not exist because, one - they use the metric system so no ounces, and two - there are no bags that large unless you're buying in bulk from a specialty store.

Cadbury makes some delicious baking chips

All of this means it's a lot easier to spend a little time converting recipes to weight measurements and use a scale.

That's what I've done with Tara's recipe. You can find the converted recipe at the bottom of this post. Even if you're in the States, use a scale. It's more accurate and there are fewer dishes.

I've made these cookies at least a dozen times since we moved to New Zealand. Thankfully my KitchenAid stand mixer was on that shipping container that eventually made its way to the other side of the world. A mixer really makes this process much easier on the arms.

Several people have asked what the secret is to these cookies. The standard response is tons of butter and sugar. While that is true, there are a couple secrets in the technique. So here's the process.

First, whisk together the dry ingredients - flour, salt and baking soda. Simple.

Second, cream the room-temperature butter and two types of sugar.

You want it to be fluffy

Third, add the eggs (one at a time) and the vanilla. Scrape down the sides a time or two to make sure everything is combined.

Fourth, slowly add the dry ingredients. This part is critical. You don't want to over mix because that will overwork the gluten and your cookies won't be as soft and tender as they could be. Keep the mixer at the lowest setting and you should be fine. Or hand mix, but this dough eventually gets pretty tough to stir.

Fifth, add your chocolate. I like to use a mixture of chips and chunks.

And finally, scoop and bake. Do NOT over bake. You want them to just be browned around the edges. Trust me. That's how the crispy on the outside and soft on the inside magic happens.

The smell of cookie deliciousness will start wafting out of the oven about the same time the cookies start to brown. Use your nose and eyes to determine doneness more than the timer.

As I mentioned, this recipe makes a ton of cookies. I like to freeze some of the dough in ready-to-go scoops so I can have fresh baked cookies at any time.

You can bake them straight from the freezer. Well, move them to a cookie sheet, first. Just tack a couple of minutes onto the bake time and, again, use your eyes and nose to determine doneness.

Everyone will think you're some sort of magical tree-dwelling elf. Not sure New Zealanders will understand that reference.

Proper American Chocolate Chip Cookies
(recipe converted from Tara Bench/Tara Teaspoon recipe)

482 grams standard grade (all-purpose) flour 

4.6 grams (1 US tsp) baking soda

2.75 grams (1 US tsp) salt

340 grams unsalted butter, softened

320 grams light brown sugar

198 grams granulated sugar

2 eggs

13 grams (1 US tblsp) vanilla extract 

652 grams chocolate chips/chunks

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). 

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. 

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Make it fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until well incorporated.

Slowly add the dry mixture while mixing at a low speed. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 180C/350F for 10 minutes or until edges start to brown.