Alton Brown's "The Chewy" - best chocolate chip cookie (v.2)

One year ago, I began my search for the "Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe." { see here }  Although I  experimented with variations of the classic chocolate chip cookie (like pillow cookies), I didn't further my explorations very much.  Now, with my baking bug back in full force, I bring to you, the best chocolate chip cookie (v.2)!

In essence, it's the recipe for Alton Brown's "The Chewy" with a few modifications.
Yield: ~2 dozen standard-sized cookies

Ingredients

•  2 sticks of unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour (I used all-purpose flour and they still turned out great)
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar (I used light)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp. low-fat milk
• 1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract
• 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup of nuts (optional)

 
Instructions 

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.  Meanwhile, sift flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon together and set aside.

3) Pour the melted butter in a metal bowl, add sugars, and cream everything together using a stand or hand mixer.  The texture should be smooth and thin.

4) Add egg, egg yolk, milk, vanilla extract and mix until well-combined.  Slowly add the flour mixture while still mixing until the texture becomes akin to peanut butter.

5) Lastly, add the chocolate chips until well-incorporated.  Alton advises you chill the dough overnight, but since I didn't have that kind of time, I just went straight to scooping them out onto a baking sheet.  My scoops were small because I wanted relatively small cookies.  Also, I scooped the dough with wooden spoons for one batch while I rolled my second batch into neat balls.  The former will turn out more like homemade cookies whereas the neat rolled balls will turn out like store-bought cookies.  Either case, they both taste delicious.

6) Bake for about 12 min. or until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown.  About 7 min. in, I swapped the two baking trays, placing the bottom one on top oven rack, and top one on bottom oven rack.

7) Cool and let it sit out for a few hours before transferring them into air-tight containers.

Spoon-scooped cookies

Rolled cookies

Happy Baking!  A version 3 may be coming very soon.  This recipe calls for the use of instant vanilla pudding.  Yum!