Cornmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Among my top 5 things I enjoy in life, I would say snacking is pretty far up there. One of my ultimate favorite snacks is a perfect chocolate chip cookie – chewy on the inside, crispy edges, chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. But…what if I could make them even more amazing?

Enter tonight’s star – cornmeal! While at Publix last week, I happened to buy a bag of cornmeal for reasons that are still unclear to me. Strangest impulse ever in the history of impulses? Perhaps. At any rate, I found myself with a bag of cornmeal what to do with it. Enter Google! Among hundreds of recipes for pizza crust, I came across an amazing recipe from Baking Bites that sounded right up my alley. Behold – the Cornmeal CCC (make about 3.5 dozen cookies).

Cornmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Servings: roughly 3 1/2 dozen
Time: 1hr 15 mins
Difficulty: shmedium
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1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips – I used 1 cup of semi-sweet morsels and 1 cup of milk chocolate morsels because I’m a madman but you could use whatever combination you would like

Precious lil' mis en place with all of the ingredients ready and rarin'to go — Precious lil’ mis en place with all of the ingredients ready and rarin’ to go

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, try a Silpat, OR if you’re in a pinch you can use a quality non-stick cookie sheet.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, followed by vanilla extract.

Creamed butter/sugars/egg/vanilla and the flour/cornmeal/baking soda/baking powder/salt mixture.

Gradually, with the mixer on low speed, blend in the flour mixture until the dough comes together. Stir in chocolate chips. The dough will look almost like sand – do not be alarmed! This is okay and awesome.

Final dough! Like I said, it will look sandy. This is a good thing! Be sure to mix the chips in with a spoon or spatula instead of a mixer attachment to get even distribution. — Like I said, it will look sandy. This is a good thing! Be sure to mix the chips in with a spoon or spatula instead of a mixer attachment to get even distribution.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place onto prepared baking sheet, allowing about 2-inches between cookies to allow for spread. If you have a cookie dough scoop it will come in very handy here, but you can also shape them by hand. Ideally they’ll look like this when they go in the oven:

Bake for 10-13 minutes, until cookies are lightly browned and set. Allow to cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. This is a crucial step because the inside will still be setting at this point and if you remove the cookies prematurely you won’t get the great texture from this recipe.