The best chocolate chip cookies in the entire universe

If I could only eat one thing for dessert for the rest of my life, I’d choose Mark Bittman’s perfectly chewy and crispy chocolate chip cookies. I use semisweet chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate and usually halve the recipe so I am not tempted to gobble fistfuls of cookies everyday. Because that would be terrible. And also amazing.

Makes: 3 to 4 dozen

1 /2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3 /4 cup granulated sugar

3 /4 cup brown sugar (I like to use dark brown sugar-it makes the cookies flatter)

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 /2 teaspoon baking soda

1 /2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups chopped good-quality semisweet chocolate (good quality semisweet chocolate chips are fine)

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Cream together the butter and sugars with an electric mixer; add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the dough, beat together, then add the vanilla and stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Drop tablespoon-size mounds of dough about 3 inches apart in rows and columns on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes on the sheets before transferring to a rack with a spatula to cool completely. The cookies will stay fresh in tupperware or a ziplock bag for a couple of days (they also freeze well).

Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything which you should go out and buy right now