The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies, and I think I've finally found the very best recipe I have EVER made. This recipe was originally from America's Test Kitchen and was adapted by Katie over at Good Things Catered. I adapted it a little more in order to make it a bit more festive for the holidays.

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled until warm
1 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I added holiday M&M's)

Directions:
-Adjust oven racks to upper & lower -middle positions & heat oven to 325. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
-Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside.
-With electric mixer, or by hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined. 
-Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. 
-Add dry ingredients and beat at a low speed just until combined. Stir in chips. (Or M&Ms!)
-Roll scant 1/2 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball.
-Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft & puffy (about 17 minutes in my oven). *
-Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking and place on wire rack to cool.

** I was actually lazy and just put two cookie sheets on top of each other. They both turned out fine. When I made smaller cookies, they took about 12 minutes, larger cookies took about 16. Make sure you take the cookies out when they still look a little undercooked in the center to make sure that they stay soft!

Guten Appetit!