I brought a batch to my Mom and she was hooked. After that, she started to ask me when I was going to bring more cookies over. This has been going on for years now. I occasionally make them for her on birthdays or holidays or in this case as a peace offering. I feel like I did nothing wrong, but I know it's up to me to extend these cookies as a treaty.
When I first started this "from scratch" business, I didn't know where to start, so I used the recipe on the Nestle chip bag. I have since scoured the internet and have found a recipe that always works out great for me. I like my cookies soft, and this recipe uses a higher amount of brown sugar and has the secret ingredient of pudding mix to achieve the texture I desire. It can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Award-Winning-Soft-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/Detail.aspx or just below:
(makes about 36 cookies)
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar *
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs (room temp is best)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips **
1 1/3 cups and 2 tbls chopped walnuts (optional)
I Also add about 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe and sift it with the dry ingredients. This is to enhance the flavor. I assure you that these will not be salty.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.
* I make my own brown sugar (a tip from Alton Brown).
Just take a pound of sugar and 3 oz (by weight) molasses and whir in the food processor until blended. Try it, it really adds that molasses flavor that regular brown sugar fails to deliver.
** I use 1/2 of the amount of chocolate chips and I don't add the nuts, but to each their own.
Tech Tips:
This is the part where I will give little tips to help make the experience better.
As always, if you have a stand mixer, use it! It makes everything much easier and faster!
I am lucky enough to have a kitchen aid stand mixer, but I started with a cheap hamilton beach mixer I got at a thrift store for 10 bucks.
Parchment paper is your friend. I line my pans with parchment and the cookies will not stick. I leave the same piece of parchment on the pan and just keep dishing out cookies on it. When you are done, throw it away and you are golden, just like your cookies. You can also use a silicone mat and it will work just as well, and will be greener.
I use a "disher" aslo known as an ice cream scoop. I use the 1 tablespoon size. It makes the cookies the perfect size and they are all uniform. I used to use a regular spoon, but as I kept going, the cookies would get bigger and bigger because I would get tired of scooping.
Between batches i put the dough back in the fridge to keep the butter cold. This helps the cookies not be flatter than phyllo dough.
When I make a double batch, I will use two pans. I put the first one in then about 5 min in, I will dish up the next set on the pan. Switch them out when the buzzer sounds. Let the hot cookies cool for about 5 min, put them on a cooling rack, then dish the next batch and so on and so forth.
You can also put two pans in, one on the middle rack one on the rack below. Half way through cooking time, pull them and rotate them 180 degrees and then swap the rack they were on. Ya got me?
