Typical Ramblings, Atypical Nonsense: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday Miss Bean brought home her class list with the announcement the Valentine's part would be happening on Monday. Okay, no problem I thought, that gives us all weekend to get something together. haha Yeah right! She ends up calling home this morning about 15 minutes into the school day; "Mom, I need Valentines for today". Yeah, that's my life.

So I started with making a batch of my chocolate chip cookies. Rather than using my cookie scoop i used a 1/8 cup measuring cup to make bigger cookies. If you want bakery size cookies I'd even go up too the 1/4 cup. I think the 1/8th cup made a big enough size for the kids though. Oh, I also baked them for the full 12 minutes.

While the cookies were baking I took a package of paper CD covers and used a heart stamp on the corners. On the back flap I wrote "From: Miss. Bean" (not really those words, but you get the idea) and I put the cooled cookie inside and closed the flap with a heart sticker.

The only thing I should have done was put the cookie on a square of waxed paper before sliding it into the package because you could see grease marks bleeding through the back by the time I took them to the school. Oh well, we can't all be perfect ;) At least she has something cute to pass out to her classmates and the parents won't have to fight with their children about finally letting go of the valentine card 6 months from now. ;)

Today I decided I wanted to bake. It's been since my last cupcakes that I have done any sort of baking, so it was nice to get in the kitchen today. Little guy co-operated very nicely too. He took a nice long nap. :) These are seriously some good chocolate chip cookies. It's taken me years of trying different recipes to find one that I am really happy with the results. Lets get to it...

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes Approx. 7 Dozen
Original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed (I always make my own w/granulated sugar and molasses - just add as little or as much molasses as you like.)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (or use 4 cups all-purpose flour)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 bag chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate or swirled)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F or 176°C. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Stir in the flour, baking soda and salt. (I add the flour 1 cup at a time and mix well). Stir in entire bag of chocolate chips.

Using a cookie dough scoop drop on lined cookie sheet. Bake in oven for 9-12 minutes.

If you want a chewy cookie, you'll want to take these out of the oven just as they begin to brown. If you want a crunchy cookie leave in for 11-12 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 -3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Since this makes so many cookies and kids are kids, I usually just put out 1-2 dozen on a tray and package the rest up for the freezer.