Chocolate Chip Cookies – Outside the Box

There is nothing finer on a lazy afternoon than a warm chocolate chip cookie and a cold glass of milk. Okay, that combination would be fine on any day at any hour, but ‘lazy afternoon’ sounded more poetic. This is especially true if said chocolate chip cookies are made from hand rather than from a package or refrigerated roll of pre-cut dough.

Good thing is that making chocolate chip cookies from scratch is easy, fast, and can make many more cookies that you can enjoy on other lazy afternoons (because they freeze quite well). Here’s a simple recipe you can use to produce these delectable and popular treats.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Ingredients:

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs (or egg substitute)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups (1 12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add the eggs (or substitute) and beat until combined. In a second bowl stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture (and, by gradually, I don’t mean all at once) and mix until combined. As the last step, slowly stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough (tablespoonfuls for thicker cookies) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes (12 to 15 for tablespoon-sized cookies) until lightly browned. Make sure you slightly cool these before removing them from the sheet. Surprisingly, you’ll get five to six dozen cookies out of this!

The cookies will be crisp on the outside, but chewy on the inside; perfect to dip into that cold glass of milk. Best bet is to eat them when warm. But, if you can’t reach for them in time, put them in the microwave for a few seconds to get those chocolate molecules going.

Remember, this recipe will generate almost 70 cookies. So, if that’s too much for you and the family to eat at once, put some in the freezer for a rainy day or road trip. Or, bring half of them to work as a thank you to your boss and fellow employees. Of course, you could be selfish and eat them all yourself. The only downside to that is that you’ll probably take a nap that’ll last until fall.

Clacked by Richard Keller
on Jul 17, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT