cookie jar

Posted by marne on February 6, 2007 in cook | 2 comments

I’ve moved on from my reading cycle into a cookie baking cycle. Sunday night I developed a very strong need for chocolate chip cookies. Luckily, chocolate chips are as much a staple in our house as flour and sugar, so they were easy enough to whip up:

I have a couple of these old, giant mayonnaise jars that were my grandmother’s. The other one is my sugar jar. Grandma usually had a jar full of cookies just like this.  I wish they sold mayonnaise like that still, those jars are the best. I’ll just brag a little bit here, and say that my chocolate chip cookie recipe is pretty darn good, and nearly half the fat of the traditional Tollhouse recipe. So if you get a hankering for cookies, here is an easy and delicious recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room tempurature
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of good vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 12 oz. package good chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Cream together the butter and sugars.
2. Add the eggs and vanilla. I like to measure the vanilla right over the bowl and let a little extra dribble in.
3. On top of this mixture, measure out your flour, salt and baking soda. Since we live at 4000 feet above sea level, I add another 2 spoonfuls of flour. So do that if you live at a high elevation too. Stir the powdered ingredients lightly to combine them before stirring all the way down to mix them with the butter mixture. This is because I am lazy and don’t want to dirty two bowls.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips and taste the cookie dough to make sure it’s good.
5. Drop by the spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet and pop them in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Cooking them a shorter amount of time makes them come out soft, and cooking them longer makes them crispy, so make them whichever way you prefer.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies, depending on how much dough you eat.