My Ideal Chocolate Chip Cookie

This is a perfect cookie, in my opinion. They are so pretty with their crackled tops. If you eat around the edges, you'll find them to be crunchy and crisp, then when you get to the center they become chewy. A sweet treat filled with bittersweet chocolate.

A heavy-duty stand mixer, which I do not have, would greatly ease the preparation of this cookie, as it is a very dense dough. It just takes me a little longer to make my cookies, while I work in all the flour by hand--sometimes literally by (clean) hand. An old-timey tip, from the days when all cooks made their cookies the way I do, is to sift your flour before measuring.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. hot water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking pans with parchment.

Cream together butter and both sugars until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and stir that in, as well as the salt. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips. The dough will be very thick.

Form dough into walnut size balls; place on the baking pan and flatten slightly. Bake for about 10 minutes, rotating pans half way through baking, until edges are beginning to brown. Remove to racks to cool.