This is based on a recipe originally published by the New York Times, reduced by half and heavily modified to suit my personal preferences.

This recipe uses a KitchenAid mixer and makes between 40 to 48 cookies.

• 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted or salted butter
• ⅔ cup light/golden brown sugar
• ½ cup white granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1¼ tsp natural vanilla extract (experiment with this)
• 1 cup cake & pastry flour
• ¾ cup bread flour (or all-purpose flour if that’s all you have)
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp sea salt (if you used salted butter) or ½ tsp sea salt (unsalted butter)
• Maximum 1 cup chocolate chips

Let the butter soften properly at room temperature, put in the mixing bowl, attach the pastry paddle and start the mixer at level 2.

Add the brown and white sugars, egg, and vanilla extract. Increase the mixing speed to 4 until smooth, then to 6 to inject a decent amount of air into the mixture. Stop mixing once the mixture is smooth and a lighter brown colour.

Add the two flours, salt, baking soda and baking powder, mix at level 2 for about 20 to 30 seconds until the cookie dough starts to form. Add a cup of chocolate chips to the cookie dough and mix for a few seconds until the dough reaches an even consistency. Mix for the least possible amount of time otherwise you’ll be baking beige hockey pucks.

Roll out small cookie balls about the size of a miniature golf ball. Flatten each ball and deposit on cookie sheets covered with parchment paper. Expect to bake four sheets of cookies. Allow each used cookie sheet to cool down before reusing it for the next batch.

Bake at 350°F for about 12 to 13 minutes. The cookies are ready when the bottoms and edges are slightly browned. You’ll need to experiment a bit to find the right amount of baking time and the right cookie consistency with your oven.

Once baked, gently transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack. The cookies will last a week when stored in a sealed bag, but no more as this recipe doesn’t include any preservatives. The best option is to freeze the cookies and take a few of them out at a time.