Passionfruit Butter

(Sorry the lighting and colors are so weird… Like many normal people, I most prefer choco-chip cookies straight out of the oven at night as opposed to broad daylight, which means the photos come out either over-exposed due to the flash or severely dark and gloomy. If you feel that strongly about my very poor photo-editing, I am not above accepting your generous donation of PhotoShop. Just saying.)

I’ve made the executive decision to transcribe and publicly share the recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever tasted (I did, however, report a very similar version of this same recipe in a video I did for the Food Chain). Literally, I’ve been making these for about a year and a half. The recipe changes each time I make them, and they keep getting better. I’m getting to a point where I’m not sure I could improve on them that much.

HOKAY. SO. Here’s what you’ll need:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 cups bread flour (I got this idea from Foodie at Fifteen’s cookie recipe. I never would’ve known. Maybe it’d be even better if I just went with 3c bread flour and scrapped the all-purpose altogether, but I’m too afraid of change to take that leap…)
1.5 TEASPOONS. NOT TABLESPOONS. salt
1.5 teaspoons baking SODA. NOT POWDER.
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (if you don’t believe me about the room temperature thing, check this out.)
1.5 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
As many chocolate chips as you want!

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, salt, and baking soda. Or you could be fancy and sift them… but I promise I won’t tell anyone if you stick with the whisk.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer (on medium-speed or so) to cream the butter and sugars (brown and white).
Mix two eggs, one at a time, into the butter mixture until just blended.
Separate the third egg and mix ONLY THE EGG WHITE into the butter mixture.
Add in the vanilla. I use ridiculously lavish vanilla, which makes it okay in my mind to spill just a little bit when I’m pouring it into the teaspoon… so you can get away with 2.5 teaspoons or so if you’re using good stuff.
Mix a bit of the flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egginess — a cup or so at a time so you don’t have flour flying everywhere (it’s very hard to clean up). I can usually make it to about three intervals of pouring and mixing before I lose my patience.
Now pour in as many chocolate chips as you want. Numbers absolutely do not apply here, as this is a very personal decision. Who am I to instruct you?

Oh, right. I forgot to preheat the oven. I usually go with 325 degrees but if you have a super-fancy oven, 350′s fine. I just err on the side of caution since our oven is basically Father Time’s uncle. Uhh Great-Uncle Time I guess?
On a greased (or buttered) cookie sheet, stick the cookie dough on — I go for balls about the size of a golf ball.
I am not going to tell you how many minutes it takes to bake these because everyone knows that that would be just a rough estimate. I stopped timing myself when I realized that what could be accomplished in 10 minutes with one oven took 7 minutes in another and 20 minutes in yet another. My solution? Hover stalkerishly near your oven. I stake out a comfy spot on the countertop right next to it for easy viewing.

And voila! If all goes as planned, you get a cookie that’s perfectly golden brown on the outside, with a vaguely toffee-like sweetness thanks to the brown sugar, ever-so-slightly gritty, crispy only for the first millisecond of your biting experience… and then… it gives way to a chewy mass of melty ooze. The quintessence, the Platonic form of fluffy luv.

Purrrrr… Hello, studmuffin! May I please lick you…?