....is Back to Basics, Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a family recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I made it with such frequency in college I actually gave it up for lent one year. Not because I would eat it by the handful alone, I had 5 roommates and a few friends willing to help me out. The amount of butter and sugar I was going thru simply astonished me, so I took a break. I may have saved a few waistlines, including my own.

I also noticed the recipe rarely made it to cookie form. Only once that I recall, a group of boys specifically requested it in cookie form. I kept most of the ingredients on hand but when requested I usually required the missing ingredients be brought to me. That same group would show up at the door with a bag of chocolate chips or a stick of butter or one time I'm pretty sure they asked one of my neighbors to 'borrow' two eggs.

Most of the time it was eaten as dough (and to my knowledge, no one ever got sick from it). Maybe 30% of the time we would make Pizzookie with it, this lovely treat is in a few restaurants now. Basically you spread all the dough onto a cookie sheet or pizza pan (pizza + cookie = pizzookie) and par-bake it. Just past the 'jiggly' stage, it's a technical term.

This past year i decided to try my hand at the classic chocolate chip cookie, you think it wold be easy but there are thousands of chocolate chip cookies out there. Some have yogurt or pudding mix but I wanted plain, old, normal chocolate chip cookies. This is my favorite, they are gooey and hold together, most recipes have an inherent crumbling problem. The only alteration I made to the link below was a full teaspoon of vanilla, if you double the batch I would recommend only a teaspoon and a half.

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/4 Cups Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the vanilla and egg. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl; stir into the sugar mixture in 3-4 parts. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets or use a cookie scoop, one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Remove from baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

(Thanks, Anna.)

Happy New Year, Hello 2013.