Molassesy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These may be the best chocolate chip cookies ever.  I do not take this statement lightly.  Up until this point I held the firm conviction that my chocolate chip cookies were the best ever, so it is not easy for me to admit that another cookie may be taking the top spot.  I have not baked my cookies in many, many months, therefore it could be that I'm just blinded by the greatness of these cookies and am forgetting just how great mine are and thus unfairly bumping them down to second place.  As such, I will be doing a chocolate chip cookie showdown at some point soon (perhaps over my election day holiday) to compare these and maybe a few other recipes.  Until then, I will have to consider it a tie between these cookies and my own, but darn they are good!

I digress.  The cookies really are excellent.  They have a much stronger brown sugar taste than normal chocolate chip cookies because (as the name suggests) they have molasses in them rather than just brown sugar.  My cookie recipe calls for dark brown sugar (as opposed to light brown sugar, which is used typically) to give them a stronger flavor.  I have to say I was a little hesitant when I added an entire 1/4 of molasses to the cookie dough, but it isn't overpowering.  Instead, it is absolutely amazing!

The recipe called for 1 cup of walnuts.  I'm not a huge fan of nuts in my chocolate chip cookies, so I used an extra cup of chocolate chips instead: that meant 3 cups of chips!  I used half semi-sweet and half bitter-sweet.  Yum!

What puts these over the top is that these cookies don't end up crispy (I prefer soft, gooey cookies) but they don't seem undercooked either.  They are firm and golden on the outside and soft on the inside.  That is a balance I try to get with mine, but have not yet achieved.  The recipe explains that this consistency is achieved by baking them at a higher heat for a shorter time.  I think I will have to try this with my dough and see if it works and improves them enough to put them bake on top!

Oh, I forgot to say, the recipe is from Roland Mesnier's cookbook Dessert University, which is a really good cookbook that I highly recommend (and not just because of this recipe).

P.S. Photo coming soon.