Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies

It is that time of year, Cookie Season and my favorite ones are the Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies! I love cookies anytime of the year. The upside of the holiday season is that I have the excuse that it is the holidays, so I can make more than usual. Yes, I am sticking to that story… The chocolate does not melt as quickly during the late fall/winter, either. I will think up as many rationing things as I can just so I can make cookies. laughing…

When we first moved up here, I found this cookie recipe on the back of a bag of unbleached flour. I was so frustrated with trying to readjust my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe I had finally got “just right” before we moved. Here, they went flattish. I thought, “what the heck?” and tried this recipe. It is yummy, they do not go flat, it does not have a lot of eggs and makes a lot of cookies. Win-win.

I had been fussing with my old chocolate chip cookie recipe for years, adjusting the recipe each time we moved- down to the flatlands, above the 3000′ elevation, and in-between. This recipe turned out perfect. It is not too sweet like most recipes, yet it is packed with more chocolate chips than my old recipe.

I weigh my chocolate chips. For real. Chocolate chips come in 11 oz bags now, so I buy 3 bags of my favorite ones- Guittard or Ghiradelli chocolate chips in semi-sweet, dark chocolate and milk chocolate. This time, I used only two of them- the dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I change up the blend  ratio of the three flavors or blend all of the chips, weight them out and put the remainder in a ziplock bag, tucking it away in the refrigerator in the drawer where I keep these sorts of thing for cooking and baking. They are there for the next time I make cookies, make another food that needs chocolate chips or they are gobbled up as a snack. Yum!

Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Heat oven to 350°F.

With a sturdy spoon*, mash-mix together the softened butter and the sugars. Add in the vanilla, and then add the eggs. Stir until just-blended. Add in the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the flour as best as possible, then finish by using your hands to mix-knead in the flour. I know this sounds weird, but it works beautifully. Then mash in the chocolate chips and nuts by hand. This will distribute the chips nicely. The dough is soft, yet stiff, it makes any sense.

*You can use a mixer. Be sure to mix just until blended. Do not over mix the dough. The mixer will not work once you add the flour. Trust me there. This is a very stiff dough.

On an ungreased cookie sheet, (you can use parchment paper, and I do), grab lumps of dough about the size of whole walnuts and place evenly on the cookie sheet. I get 16 per cookie sheet.

Bake for 13 minutes to get to the color shown in the photo. I have a gas oven. and live over the 2200′ elevation mark. You may need to cook them sorter or longer times. You can go a couple of minutes longer if you like them brown and crispy, of course.

Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a sheet of parchment paper to cool completely. I tried cooling racks. Scrubbing chocolate out of the little squares sucks. The paper works fine. While the cookies are cooling, I shove the next loaded cookie sheet into the oven. Rinse and repeat, so to speak. This makes about 8 dozen cookies in the size shown, 2″ to 3″.

I put 3 dozen in a gallon freezer bag to freeze. 3 dozen in another bag, the remaining in a glass bowl with sealable lid, and sit them on the counter to taunt us each time we walk by. Putting part in the freezer keeps them fresh until we are done with the ones on the counter.

That said… It does not take long to get into the bags of cookies in the freezer. We are cookie monsters at heart in this house. It seems like I should skip the freezing part for storage, yet it keeps the chips from melting if it gets warm in the house.

I hope you enjoy this cookie recipe!