This week's SMS is especially fun as it is hosted by the one and only Sweet Melissa herself, Melissa Murphy! Our task was to make Melissa's chocolate chip cookies with toasted almonds. These cookies are the all-time bestsellers at Melissa's bakery, Sweet Melissa Patisserie, so I had high hopes! I've tried a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes but still haven't really found a go-to recipe.
I was planning to send these cookies to work with Shane so I decided to make half with almonds and half without as I know at least one of his coworkers has a nut allergy. The recipe is quick and easy but does require a bit of planning ahead as it calls for an hour and a half of chill time for the dough in the fridge before baking.
I'm almost at a loss for words when it comes to this recipe. It was one of those recipes that cooperated perfectly and came together exactly as described so not much in the way of tips to pass along. The only thing I'd mention is that I found the half of the dough with both the chocolate and the almonds a bit tricky to slice. The ratio of mix-ins to dough was pretty high so it was tough to get my knife through the dough without running into a piece of chocolate or an almond.
I won't lie - I turned my oven light on and snuck a peek at these cookies fairly often as they baked. I was curious as to how much they'd spread and how quickly. I was psyched when they didn't flatten out like pancakes (which tends to happen to me fairly often with chocolate chip cookie recipes). That fact alone scored these cookies major points! Shane and I shared one of the cookies without almonds for dessert the night I made them and I can officially say these are my favorite chocolate chip cookies ever! I loved how chewy they were. They also struck the perfect balance of cookie dough to chocolate for me. I actually prefer my chocolate chip cookies a little light on the chips and the cookie we ate had less chocolate than I typically find in a chocolate chip cookie. So I wasn't terribly surprised when Shane said that while he enjoyed the cookie, he wished there were more chocolate chips. Simple solution - when I make these again (soon!!) I'll split the dough in half and add more chips to Shane's half while keeping mine exactly as Melissa intended!
Be sure to stop by the Sweet Melissa Sundays site to check out Melissa Murphy's photos and thoughts on these cookies (the recipe is also available through this link)! While you're there you can also see how the other bakers fared with the cookies. Thanks for sharing this great recipe, Melissa! It will be one I'll make again and again!
