My friends at Commonwealth Press have been super awesome helping me out with a bunch of distribution stuff with Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week which gave me an excuse to play around with my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Not that I really need an excuse. Funny thing about my recipes like that – they are perfect and wonderful just as they are but I can’t help but tinker.

Generally I prefer my chocolate chip cookies chewy, little under baked, more cookie than chocolate chips, I am also a fan of nuts. There is a long standing war in my house over nuts vs no nuts. Hart seems to think there are no place for nuts in chocolate chip cookies or brownies. To that I usually tell him to start making his own damn cookies then. He never does and I usually just alternate between the 2 or add nuts in the last half of the batch so we are both happy. The things I do!! Seriously though, love almonds, walnuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, etc in my chocolate chip cookies, just depends on what I am going for ~ Hart is totally wrong, I have learned to accept that.

The addition of buttermilk makes for a doughier cookie, a bit more cakey but not in a bad way. The cookies don’t spread as much when they bake so they are denser and he middles stay moist. I also load them up with the chips and nuts, they can totally handle it and are all the better for it.

You may also notice that there are 3 different kinds of sugar in this recipe…it’s on purpose. The sugars all work in different ways to accomplish different things. All 3 add sweetness, but the dark brown adds some molasses & chewiness, the light brown less molasses but still the chewiness, the granulated sweetness. If you used all of any of them the cookies would bake up either as puddles or wouldn’t spread at all, this is the combo I like for a balance of flavor and texture.

I used a semisweet chocolate & toasted almonds, but this would also be great with milk chocolate & cashews. I guess you could make these without the nuts. If you really wanted to. I wouldn’t but we have already discussed my thoughts on the nuts vs no nuts thing. If you do add an extra cup of chocolate chips to make up for their missing bulk so they bake out the same way.

Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cookies makes around 36ish

• 1 cup Unsalted Butter, softened
• 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1 large Egg
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 cup Buttermilk
• 2 Tbsp Milk
• 2 1/4 cup Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 cup Toasted Almonds, all busted up

Preheat the oven to 375. I use whole, toasted almonds and smash them up before they go into the cookies so if I need to toast almonds I toss them in and get them going. Toast on a sheet tray about 8-10 minutes in a hot oven. To bust them up I let them cool, put them in a baggie and smash the hell out of them with a rolling pin. It’s fun. It also yields a much rougher chop that I dig in cookies.

Measure the flour, baking soda & salt into a bowl and mix w a wire whisk.

In another bowl cream together the butter & sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down and add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the yolks and mix until incorporated completely. Add the vanilla, mix to incorporate then do the same with the milk & buttermilk.

Add the flour while the mixer does its thing until it is all mixed up into a yummy batter. Add the chocolate chips & busted up nuts and mix up until it is all evenly distributed. This is the part where you get to eat cookie dough. May be my most favorite part if I am completely honest.

I use my black handled scoop – about 2 Tablespoons – and scoop onto parchment lined trays. Bake for 11-13 minutes, my oven is 12 on the money. They are perfectly under baked. Let them sit on the tray for a couple minutes before transferring to a cooking rack, they need a chance to set up some.

Probably should let them cool before you try to eat them…but I never can.