I just scoop them out with an ice cream scooper and make 18 cookies. It's pretty great because it makes one batch because you cook both sheets in the oven at the same time and switch them 1/2 way through. I also love that you melt the butter, then you don't have to plan ahead with getting the butter to room temperature. I also used the Guittard super cookie chocolate chips, you can find them at Mollie Stones. They're pretty awesome. This is also important, right before putting them into the oven I add sprinkle sea salt on top. Just like the NYTimes chocolate chip cookies. I think this recipe is a great quick alternative to those.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Cooks Illustrated
Makes 1 1/2 dozen 3-inch cookies.   Published January 1, 1996.  
These truly chewy chocolate chip cookies are delicious served warm from the oven or cooled. To ensure a chewy texture, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool. You can substitute white, milk chocolate, or peanut butter chips for the semi- or bittersweet chips called for in the recipe. In addition to chips, you can flavor the dough with one cup of nuts, raisins, or shredded coconut.

Ingredients

• 2 1/8 cups bleached all-purpose flour (about 10 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
• 1cup brown sugar (light or dark), 7 ounces
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 - 2cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.
3. Following illustrations below, form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven surface. Use an ice cream scoop.  Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month—shaped or not.)
4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). (Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container. You want them to be slightly browned, just barely.