I found this the other day when I was looking for a way to fix my rather brittle cookies: What I tried didn't fix them, but I am going to keep looking for a solution. If you have any suggestions, I would be open to comments. My cookies are great in milk, but make a crumbly mess when they stand alone.
The recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House Morsels [tm] bag makes fine cookies, and if you were to follow it precisely, you couldn't go too far wrong. However, based upon my own experience and that of others, I advise a few minor modifications and refinements.
First, always use real butter. Don't let anyone convince you that butter vs. margarine doesn't make any difference. It does.
Another reason to use real butter instead of margarine or Crisco: HYDROGENATED FATS. As in, margarine and Crisco are teeming with them, while butter is a natural product and contains no hydrogenated fats.
Second, TRIPLE the amount of vanilla extract recommended. This means to use a tablespoon where a teaspoon is specified. Also, always use real vanilla extract and not "vanillin," which is bogus, although cheaper, and sold next to the genuine article in many grocery stores. (Incidentally, vanilla is a wondrous and versatile substance. Click here to find out everything you ever wanted to know about vanilla, and some things you never suspected.)
Third, and this can make a big difference, don't just let the butter sit out at room temperature to become soft. Instead, melt it, very carefully, so that it doesn't burn (you can use a double boiler -- if anyone out there still has one! -- or else a microwave oven that is set very low and which you are watching like a hawk). A microwave can burn the butter in a second if you turn your back at an inopportune moment. (Use a Pyrex or other microwave-safe transparent container if you do this, so you can watch the butter closely.) Melted butter, because it is both warm and liquid, does a much better job of dissolving and melting the sugar than a room-temperature creamed butter can do, improving the consistency of the dough as you are working with it, and also improving the texture of the cookies after they are baked. My friend Lizabeth says that she gets much better results using melted butter and superfine granulated sugar, and I believe her; however, I have never had a problem with the texture of cookies made with ordinary granulated sugar.
Fourth, add a little milk, maybe just a tablespoon or two, when you are mixing the dough. This will make it less stiff and the cookies will be less hard and crunchy when they are done. If you do this, though, make sure the dough is nice and cold as you drop it onto the cookie sheet, and also make sure the cookie sheet is room temperature or cooler when you put the dough on it and put it into the oven. If the dough melts around the edges before it starts to bake, sometimes the edges will burn or get too brown.
The morsels MUST, however, be semisweet (i.e. dark) chocolate. Milk chocolate morsels, which are sold in similar bags to the undiscerning, are massively too sweet to put into these cookies.
I do feel obligated to point out, for that matter,that both the morsels and the baking itself can be optional. Those of us who make chocolate chip cookies know how important it is to sample the dough before baking! And I'd have to confess that sometimes the raw dough (I prefer my raw dough chipless) is even better than the cookies.
If you do like to eat raw dough, though, be careful. Any foodstuff containing raw eggs can harbor salmonella and/or other nasty little bacteria. Don't use eggs that were cracked before you opened them. Wash the eggshells in warm soapy water (and rinse them well) before cracking the eggs and using them. And remember that raw dough can be dangerous. So be cautious.
But also have fun!
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