Another Chocolate Chip Cookie

When I was in junior high a friend invited me to come over and make chocolate chip cookies with her. At her house I measured ingredients and put them all into a big bowl and started stirring with a wooden spoon. She looked at me curiously and asked why I didn't use the KitchenAid mixer for that. I laughed airily and told her that I thought you got better results doing it by hand. The actual factual truth? I'd never seen a KitchenAid mixer before and had no clue how one worked.

I'm on my second KitchenAid now (my first one didn't die, I just handed it down to my daughter when I got a pretty new, blue one) and have figured out that whole cookie dough in mixer thing. I've made so many cookies that you could recreate the Great Wall of China in cookies from the output of me and my KitchenAid. In that time I've figured out how to make chocolate chip cookies just the way I like them.

There are two cookie schools of thought - hard and crispy or soft and chewy. I'm definitely a fan of the latter category. I tweaked this recipe and the how-to's to make a cookie that's a staple in the cookie jar. I'm not promising that these are the best out there, but they sure are good. Fresh from the oven they're irresistible with melted, gooey chocolate, and they're not so easy to pass up when they're cooled, either. If you have trouble making good cookies, check out my hints here, then try this recipe and see if you don't agree that these are terrific.


The Cookie Baker's Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips (you can reduce this according to your preference. I use about 1-1/2 cups. You can also make it half milk chocolate, half semi-sweet chips.)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional, but c'mon!)

1- Preheat oven to 375 deg. F with racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

2- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Set this aside.

3- In a large mixing bowl cream the butter. Add the sugars and beat till it's light and fluffy.

4- Add the vanilla extract and eggs. Beat till creamy.

5- Gradually add the flour mixture. Stop the mixer a couple of times to scrape down the bowl and make sure all the butter is incorporated.

6- Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts.

7 - Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet, being sure the dough mounds are of equal size and are equally spaced.

8- Bake for about 9 minutes, rotating pans top to bottom halfway through baking. Remove the pan from the oven when the edges are just starting to turn brown. The top should be set, but not browned.

9- Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 2 minutes then remove them to a cooling rack.

Be sure the cookie sheet has cooled completely before scooping more dough onto it.

Note: If you want to bake up only half of the dough, you can freeze the other half in a plastic airtight container. Then you'll be able to whip up cookies on short notice. Cover the dough's surface with plastic wrap so it won't get freezer burned and be sure to label it. You can thaw it in the refrigerator or on the counter if you're impatient.