School’s out for summer. The kids have been set loose to play, to explore and to wreck havoc. I make almost daily trips to the grocery store since there are more hungry mouths to feed. If you have kids, or grandkids, around this summer. They are going to be constantly hungry. Always looking for a snack. Believe me, they’re not reaching for the cut veggies or fresh fruit. Not willingly anyway. If you’re looking for a fool proof treat to bribe them into submission or chores, look no further.
My mom is the queen of chocolate chip cookies. She has a great recipe, she’s been using it since I was in high school. My friends love it, my kid’s friends love it. I have the recipe. I have tried, unsuccessfully, many times to make chocolate chip cookies per her recipe. I just doesn’t work. Hers are fluffy and soft. Mine are flat and chewy. Others have met the same fate. Going so far as to use the exact brand of butter and flour that she uses. But, it just doesn’t work.
So, I gave up.
The only kind of chocolate chip cookies that I will attempt to make is slice and bake. (I can make delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies, just not chocolate chip. Even my husband can make better chocolate chip cookies from scratch than I can.)
As I am a glutton for punishment, sometimes I find a recipe and try again. I came pretty close with Ina Garten’s once. And then, I came across a recipe from the Joanna Gaines cookbook. Chip and Joanna can do almost anything and they do it very well. Everything they touch, turns to gold.
On the first try, these cookies turned out!
They were soft, chewy and picture perfect. Maybe it is because they recipes calls for less butter than most recipes or that it uses brown sugar instead of white. Whatever the reason, I’m going to keep making them.
I must confess, they’re still not my mothers. They are like an enigma, mysterious, puzzling and difficult to understand.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Yields approximately 40 cookies)
INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 to 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer), beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the eggs and beat until blended. Add the vanilla and beat until blended.
Turn the mixer off and add the flour mixture to the bowl. Mix on medium just until the flour is mixed in, then turn the mixer to high speed for a few seconds to pull the dough together; it will be chunky. Add the chocolate chips and beat on high for about 5 seconds to thoroughly and quickly mix in the chips.
At this point, you could stop. Eat the dough, by the spoonful. Never telling anyone that you started to make chocolate chip cookies. I know that you’re not supposed to eat the raw dough, but sometimes it’s so hard to resist!!
Drop by large spoonfuls (about a Tablespoon) on the lined baking sheet; don’t flatten them. Even though I had a few bites of dough, I still ended up with 40 cookies.
Bake until lightly browned on top, 10 to 11 minutes.
Cool on the pan on a rack for 1 minute, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
*To the best of my ability, I have tried to indicate all ingredients, products and equipment that are available at Johnnies in Bold Print.
Recipe found and adapted from Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines cookbook.