chocolate chip cookies with sea salt

For whatever reason, I am known among my group of friends for my chocolate chip cookies. I had the Tollhouse recipe memorized at a young age and have been a loyal follower for many years, but recently I've been experimenting with subtle changes here and there (while hoping they would remain the group favorite!). As I get older, I've found I appreciate my desserts with a more sophisticated level of sweetness rather than the overbearing sugar high I craved as a kid. This recipe gives a nice juxtaposition between sweet and salty that I have become a big fan of as I grow older....

Ingredients (in order of use)

1 C. (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 C. brown sugar

3/4 C. white sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsps. Vanilla*

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 1/4 C. flour

2 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

sea salt

*I used vanilla made by Abigail and rumor has it there were will be a tutorial coming soon on how to do this yourself! Otherwise, I like to use the Trader Joe's Bourbon Vanilla Extract.

Preheat oven  to 375 degrees (my oven runs hot, so I set mine to 350). Combine butter, brown sugar and white sugar in a bowl and mix on low until combined. Add your eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Add salt, baking soda and flour 1 cup at a time (or less) and continue mixing until thoroughly combined. Add the chocolate chips and fold in with a spatula or spoon. I love to use my melon baller to get even sized drops of cookie dough and then I sprinkled a few granules of sea salt on top of each ball of dough. Bake in the oven 8-11 minutes, depending on your oven and the consistency you like your cookies (I baked mine for about 8 minutes). Pull them out and let them cool enough on the sheet, so they don't fall apart when you transfer them to the cooling rack. Eat warm if possible :)

Cheers darlings!

Hannah