My favorite thing to bake is chocolate chip cookies. If you know me, you know that I will use any occasion as an excuse to make the delicious chocolaty goodness that is chocolate chip cookies. When it is a cold and dreary day I will bake. When I am procrastinating on my various homework assignments I will bake, and I will bake most often when I am craving a chocolate chip cookie.

Over the years, I have perfected and fine-tuned the art of making the best chocolate chip cookies. I know the recipe by heart, I know how long they should sit in the oven, and I know how big the cookie balls before they go into the oven.

The recipe is very simple and it is the Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe which can be found here. I have also made my own minor adjustments to the recipe to tailor them to my specific tastes, which will be shown below.

If you don’t want to go visit the link here is the full recipe for just the simple cookie shape (the website has variations on what you can do with the basic batter)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I use light brown sugar and I don’t pack it like the recipe says to do because I find that it makes them too sweet if you use more sugar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I like to add a little more vanilla because I like that strong vanilla flavor)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) of chocolate chips (I use whatever chocolate chips I have available. If they are semi-sweet I leave the amount of sugar as is, however if the chips have more sugar in them than I use less granulated sugar.)
• 1 cup chopped nuts (I don’t use nuts but the original recipe calls for them)

Directions:

Preheat. The first thing the recipe will tell you to do is to preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. I however like to wait and preheat the oven after I make the batter, because it takes a while to mold the cookie batter into ping pong ball shaped blobs.

Combine. Flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy (I just wait until it is well mixed and not necessarily creamy). Add eggs, one at a time (I add my eggs all at once), beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture (again I add the flour all at once). Stir in morsels (I just use the beater for this) and nuts (I don’t use nuts because I find the cookies to be better without them). Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake. For 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown (I usually bake them for 10 minutes to begin with and then, because I make mine slightly bigger than the recipe says to do, I bake them for 1-3 minutes more afterword) . Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes (I then transfer the cookies to laid out sheets of newspaper to cool and the newspaper will also collect some excess oil in order for the cookie to have a lighter taste).

Featured Image Credit: Lucy Porter

By Lucy Porter