Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies

These are not your mom's chocolate chip cookies, but a completely different beast. Instead of tender and crumbly, these are much heartier. The white whole wheat made a cookie that wasn't distinctively wheaty but definitely more substantial. The thicker texture stands up to repeated dunking in milk without the danger of losing a precious chunk to the bottom of your glass.

The original recipe makes about 2 dozen really large cookies, although if when I made these again I'll make them smaller because I think the larger size made them hard  to spread and cook evenly. The dough was so large that I had to use the David Lebovitz cookie flattening technique, which only made them denser. 

Like most cookies, these cookies harden significantly as they cool so it's very important that you don't over bake, like I did. Instead, take them out as soon as the edges begin to brown even though the cookies themselves are still quite soft. Trust me.

One last note about chocolate chips: I used Ghirardelli's 60% bittersweet chips for the first time in these and found them to be perfect. They are larger and flatter than the typical chocolate chips and I think that works really well as they melt more evenly in the dough and guarantee chocolate chips in every bite.

Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies
Adapted from Orangette, who got it from Good to the Grain

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Blend flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Combine butter and sugars in another bowl. (A mixer would make your life a lot easier but we managed to get by with a fork/hands) Mix eggs into the dough one at a time. Add the vanilla. Combine flour until just mixed (don't over mix!) Add the chocolate and mix until evenly distributed.

Scoop mounds of dough about 1 1/2 tablespoons in size onto the baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 16 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly browned. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool.