The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been making these chocolate chip cookies since I was in college, and I could not believe that I have never put the recipe here on my blog. These are without a doubt the BEST chocolate chip cookies ever. Well, my friend Kelly makes some tasty chocolate chip cookies, too, but aside from hers these are hands down my favorite. I don't even mind making them, and I generally hate making cookies. The recipe came to me from my college boyfriend's mom. Honestly when he and I broke up I was most disappointed that I would never have his mom's chocolate chip cookies again. Yeah...things had really gone downhill at that point since that was what disappointed me the most. His family also made the most delicious frozen margaritas, but I'd already learned how to make those. Anyway, I eventually put on my big girl panties and emailed his mom asking for the recipe. She was thrilled to hear from me and sent me the recipe. Haha..score! And I've been making them ever since. I used to make them really, really often and had the recipe memorized, but now since I don't make them all the time I have to pull out the recipe each time I want them. And I was reminded yesterday why I don't make them very often...I ate four of them almost immediately. I'm not proud of it, but damn they're tasty.

The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Susan, my ex-boyfriend's mom

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 sticks butter minus about 2 tablespoons
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Put ingredients in a bowl and cream really well. It will look yucky and then look like a thick whipping cream. I always start with everything right out of the refrigerator.

Add
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

I don’t mix this too much, just enough to combine.

Then add chocolate chips (1-2 12 oz bags depending on taste) and pecans or walnuts.

Bake at 375 until done, about 10-12 minutes.

*****

I have found that 11 minutes is the optimal baking time for these cookies. They will look a little underdone at that point, but trust me when I say that's the best time to pull them out. Otherwise they're too crunchy. Not that they're bad then, but they're much better when they're soft in the middle. I don't ever add nuts to mine either, mostly because I don't have those nuts on hand, and I'm not really a fan of nuts in my cookies. I always mix these up in my Kitchenaid mixer because it's super easy to let it do all of the work. I think that's another reason I like this recipe--I don't end up dirtying a ton of dishes, and that's one of the big beefs I have with baking. Why does it seem to always produce more dirty dishes than just cooking?

Oh, and I really like milk chocolate chips in these, although the batch I made yesterday I used a bag of milk chocolate and half a bag of semi sweet chips that I had in my pantry.

Anyway, try these cookies. Now. You won't be disappointed. And if you make them and think your chocolate chip cookie recipe is better, send it to me! I'm down for a taste test!

This is also the only cookie dough I like to eat.

What's a plate of chocolate chip cookies without a glass of milk?!

World Nutella Day

What's that? You didn't know Nutella had it's own day? What's that again? Some of you don't even know what Nutella is? Oh lordy...that must be rectified immediately. First, here's what it looks like so you can get yourself to the store as soon as you finish reading this so you can try it. Unless you're allergic to nuts, then it's probably not a good idea. Another bad idea apparently is dipping pretzels in Nutella as a snack right before bed, unless you want really strange dreams all night. I'm just sayin'...



If you want to learn more about it, the website has a ton of interesting information. In fact I learned that the same company that makes Nutella makes Kinder Surprise Eggs. There might not be as many people that know about those as I'm not sure if they're sold in the US. I'm pretty sure for awhile they weren't but who knows now. they're marvelous goodies--a chocolate egg with a plastic egg inside and in the plastic egg is a toy. Awesome.

Anyway, I digress. Saturday, February 5th was World Nutella Day.



Because of a lot going on that day (mildly hungover from a fun girls night out Friday night, then a kids' birthday party at Pump It Up on Saturday morning, then an afternoon of shopping for new clothes for me without my kids in tow) I didn't have a chance to make anything for the blessed day. So I told Boy #1 as we were leaving church yesterday that we needed to make a yummy treat at some point. He was all in--he's always game to bake something. I found a couple options to let him choose from, and this is what he went with. God bless whomever thought up a cookie with Nutella, peanut butter, and oatmeal.

Peanut Butter and Nutella Oatmeal Cookies
Source: simplylifeblog.com

1 cup flour
1 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 giant spoonfuls of Nutella (maybe somewhere around 3/4 cup???)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mix butter, sugars and peanut butter. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add into flour mixture and stir. Slowly stir nutella into the mixture.

2. Place batter in spoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool shortly before serving! Enjoy!

*****

If you check out the blog where I got this recipe from, you'll see that her cookies looked a lot different than how mine turned out (pictures below). My dough was really dry and crumbly. I read over the ingredients after I was done with the cookies to see if I'd missed something or put in too much or too little of anything, and I followed the recipe to a T. Maybe I did too much Nutella? I don't know. I also don't know if too much Nutella is even possible. I doubt it. My cookies are still good, they're just a bit crunchy. Think grocery store bakery cookies vs. homemade. Mine fall more on the grocery store bakery end of the spectrum. But we're still eating them and enjoying them. I may be eating and enjoying them a bit too much, but at least I went for a run and did weights at the gym this morning.

These were definitely yummy and came together really fast. I got a little under three dozen, and I probably would have yielded more had I not snacked on so much dough. I think I need one of those to wash down my lunch.

Angeletti Cookies

I made these as a Christmas cookie this year, and even though it's now a few weeks past Christmas I wanted to share because they don't have to be Christmas cookies, and on top of that, they were freakin' awesome. The recipe showed up in my inbox one day on an email from Real Simple magazine, and I thought they looked tasty and fun. A few weeks later when I wanted to try a new Christmas cookie recipe I went looking for it because they had looked so good.

Angeletti Cookies
Source: RealSimple.com

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for rolling the dough
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Glaze:
1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons multicolor nonpareil sprinkles, for decoration (optional)

Heat oven to 375° F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, and eggs until blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined (do not overmix).

With floured hands, roll level tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and the bottoms are pale golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons water, and the vanilla until the mixture forms a thick but pourable glaze (add more water if necessary).

Dip the top of each cookie into the glaze and let set, rounded side up, on a rack set over a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle with non-pareils, if using. Allow the glaze to set, about 20 minutes. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

*****

Now, I love a good cookie, but these were freakin' fantastic!! The boy was really excited to help with the frosting part, and he was pretty impatient waiting for the cookies to cool enough so we could do that step. Then it turned out he didn't really like dipping them, but he did have a blast sprinkling the non-pareils all over them (and my counter and anything that was in about a two foot radius of the cookies...four year olds get a bit over-zealous when it comes to putting sprinkles on cookies, in case you didn't know that). I had some Christmas non-pareils that were red, green, and white mixed together, so I used those to make them a little more festive. When I make them throughout the year, I'll stick to the regular multi-colored kind.

We all agreed that these may just be our new favorite Christmas cookie. I'm taking dinner to a friend on Friday night and thinking of making a batch of these for her (and her kids if she decides to share them).

Cheerios Breakfast Cookies

Back in May when I went to San Diego with my mom and my friend Jen B. and our crazy bobo boys, Jen made some really yummy breakfast cookies for the trip. I'd been wanting to make them myself but always forgot to buy Cheerios for them. The boy isn't really a fan of Cheerios, so they aren't a cereal I normally have on hand. I grabbed a box of Trader Joe's Cheerios-equivalent when I was there last time, and yesterday the boy and I finally made these. The dough was really tasty, and I'm not usually a cookie dough eater.

Cheerios Breakfast Cookies
From: recipezaar.com/recipe #142860

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned oats or quick-cooking oat
1 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups Cheerios toasted oat cereal

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°. Stir together sugar, butter, peanut butter, water, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients except cereal. Gently stir in cereal.
2. Drop dough by rounded 1/3 cupfuls 4 inches apart onto ungreased large cookie sheet. Flatten dough to about 1 inch thick.
3. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet. Store loosely covered.

© 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

We have turned a potty training corner!!! I kept telling the boy that if he pooped on the potty we could make cookies as a reward. Wednesday night he did it!! Of course, it was right before bedtime so I told him that Thursday morning we'd make cookies. I wanted to make something somewhat healthy, so I looked on the Cooking Light website. I gave the boy a couple options and he chose Oatmeal Chocolate Chip (we left out the pecans).

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
1 cup regular oats
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate minichips

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Yield: 3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

CALORIES 81 (33% from fat); FAT 3g (sat 1.4g,mono 1g,poly 0.3g); IRON 0.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 10mg; CALCIUM 12mg; CARBOHYDRATE 12.9g; SODIUM 76mg; PROTEIN 1.1g; FIBER 0.5g

Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2007

*****

I was not impressed with these. The dough was really dry and crumbly, so they didn't hold together when I put them on the cookie sheet. The cookies came out really hard, too. I didn't even finish making all of them. They were okay right when they came out of the oven but after sitting for awhile they weren't very good. The boy liked them well enough, so at least he felt rewarded. These aren't cookies I would make again.

No-Guilt Pumpkin Cookies

Jen B. was talking the other day about making some pumpkin bread, so I've had pumpkin on the brain ever since. I found a can of it in my pantry, so I've been trying to decide what to do with it. I looked on my new favorite recipe website, RecipeZaar.com for pumpkin recipes and came across this cookie recipe. I had everything on hand for it, so I told the boy if he took a good nap today we'd make them. Plus I was happy with the nutritional info (LOVE that about RecipeZaar!!), so I thought they'd be a good snack to have around.

No-Guilt Pumpkin Cookies
Recipe #169079

1/2 cup sugar or Splenda granular
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, beat sugars and margarine until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin, vanilla, and egg; blend well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges.

*****

Wow. These are so yummy. I've had four five cookies from the first batch (this is why I don't normally bake cookies!!). The boy is having his second. I was a bit nervous because I've made other pumpkin cookies and was really disappointed with how they turned out, but these are super tasty. Very light and fluffy with a cake-like consistency. Yum. In fact, I may mix up another batch of dough tomorrow and freeze since I have half a can of pumpkin leftover.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let me first say that this is not my mom's chocolate chip cookie recipe. I think the sun would have set and risen again in the time it would take me to think of when the last time would have been that my mom made chocolate chip cookies. I'd always ask her when I was growing up why she didn't make cookies more often, and she said she didn't want them around because she'd eat them. I didn't understand it at the time because what kid could possibly fathom not wanting to eat cookies constantly, but now as an adult I completely understand. Especially after having baked these!

This is another recipe from my message board cookbook. I have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe that I love making, but these sounded interesting, so I figured I'd try them out. The boy helped me make them. We were talking this morning about making cookies and I asked if he thought that would be fun. His answer totally cracked me up..."fun in my mouth!"

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugars. Add next four ingredients. Combine flour and baking soda, add to creamed mixture and mix well. Drop onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.

*****

I've had four of them so far. I can't stop eating them!! I think it's the pudding mix that makes them tasty and soft and chewy. Oh, and for the record I did not separately combine the flour and baking soda. Why dirty another bowl, I figure. I'm all about using as few bowls as possible (really I just hate doing dishes). Oh, and I used milk chocolate chips...Trader Joe's brand. I think those are my new chocolate chips of choice. TJ's brand, not necessarily the milk chocolate ones.

I had a yummy pasta dish planned for dinner tonight, but this cold is kicking my butt. I don't know what will happen with dinner. I may end up making it if I can rest a bit this afternoon, or we may go with our universal dinner back-up plan: $5 pizza from Little Caesar's. Regardless, the pasta dish will come sometime soon. It's from the most recent issue of Gourmet magazine. This will be my first Gourmet recipe I'll have made, so I'm pretty excited for it. Don't worry--it's super easy and quick sounding. We'll dive into the world of Gourmet together!