A Better Chocolate Chip Cookie, Harvard Style

Here's a hybrid chocolate chip cookie for keeps

The Harvard online food science class has terrific lectures and demos. One of the best is from America's Test Kitchen, on how to make a better chocolate chip cookie. Tossing aside the method on which the Nestle Toll House classic is based - the creaming method - they revamped steps to make a flavorful, crisp cookie on the outside with a tender interior.

I took it another step, preferring the ingredients of Shauna Niequest's "Gaia Cookie" recipe from her book "Bread and Wine."

Here's the hybrid featuring a method from America's Test Kitchen and ingredients adapted from Niequest's work.

If You Give Harvard a Cookie

Ingredients

8 ounces unsalted butter, divided use

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons vanilla extract (I recommend Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

1 cup good quality chocolate such as El Rey, Callebaut, Valrhona, Guittard, chopped

1 cup chopped dates, raisins, dried cherries or dried cranberries, or any combo

kosher or a good-quality sea salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 375

Method

In a small saucepan, melt 6 ounces of the butter over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally until the milk solids begin to brown and the butter turns a nutty color. Pour through a strainer into a glass bowl (to remove brown bits), then add the other 2 ounces of butter and stir to cool (this adds additional water lost during the melting and helps cool the mixture, ATK says).  Add the brown sugar and stir.

Allow this mixture to rest 10 minutes (to give the sugar time to invert); stir occasionally. Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients including flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.

To the butter and sugar mixture, whisk in 1 whole egg, and when incorporated, add the yolk and whisk it in. Add vanilla and whisk in. (That's right, no stand mixer needed!)

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir. Now add the nuts, chocolate and dried fruit.

On a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silpat, scoop out dough using a scoop that holds about 3 tablespoons. Place cookie dough about 2 inches apart. Allow the sheet pan to rest in fridge at least 10 minutes to chill the dough before baking. Just before baking, sprinkle the dough with kosher salt or sea salt. This adds a wonderful finish (but do it lightly).

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.

Dough may remain a bit domed from scooping, so rap the pan a few times gently on the work surface after baking, and the cookies will flatten slightly. Or, flatten them slightly with the palm of your hand just before baking.

Tip: Make sure the chocolate is chopped down to bits about the size of Toll House chips. If they are too large or you add too much chocolate, the chocolate can spread the batter into a flat disk.

Dried Fruit Tip: Try soaking the dried fruit in hot water (or liqueur!) to rehydrate it before adding it to the dough. Dried fruit tends to get even drier when baked, so plump it up, then drain off the liquid before using in the dough.

Get doughing!