I forced my self to stop and take a picture mid-bite because I didn't know how much longer these guys were going to last.
Overall, yesterday was a pretty lazy day. We went to my grandparents’ house for a while, scored some discount plants at Lowes (more on that later), swam a little, and watched a movie. In other words, we did absolutely nothing to warrant making five dozen chocolate chip cookies. Yet we did. It started out innocently enough: we had salads for lunch and wanted a sweet treat (terrible logic, I know) but didn’t want to eat something from a package (at least we had that going for us?). I decided to make chocolate chip cookies from the recipe on the back of the bag of Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips, diving headfirst into the recipe without realizing that it made five dozen cookies. While we were temped to make them all, I ended up putting half of the dough in the fridge for later in the week. We only had one cup of semi-sweet chips and the recipe called for two, so I used Hershey’s special dark chocolate chips for the other cup. I’m typically not too crazy about dark chocolate by itself, but the combination of dark and semi-sweet chips was perfect in these cookies.
The makings of a pretty sweet afternoon.
To make them, you’ll need:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups chocolate chips (I used 1 cup dark chocolate chips and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips)
Heat oven to 375°F. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt–set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter, granulated and brown sugars, and vanilla with mixer until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating well until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Unless you’re making these for a party or bake sale, if you’ve made the whole batch it’s wise to put half the dough in the fridge at this point (unless, for some reason, you want five dozen cookies sitting on your kitchen counter). Bake 8 to 10 minutes (nine was perfect for me), or until lightly browned. Allow time to cool slightly (about the time it takes me to stick the next pan into the oven and reset the timer seems to be just right), then remove the cookies with a spatula onto a wire rack or a plate. The recipe says to let them completely cool before serving, but we were dipping them in milk and eating them before they’d been out of the oven a full two minutes (probably not a good idea, so don’t sue me if you burn yourself).
I was so pleasantly surprised with the way these turned out because I have a particularly bad track record with cookies. I tend to bake breads, cakes, muffins, and even brownies much more frequently. There’s just something about cookies (specifically, finding the right balance between flat/crispy and puffy/cakey) that I can’t seem to figure out. I’m not sure if it’s the oven or the recipes I’ve been using, since today was a departure from both. However, I’m looking forward to experimenting a little further, and I’ll be on the lookout for new cookie recipes. Do you have a favorite to recommend?