CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

THE BEGINNING…

So, here I am, at the beginning… not entirely sure where, or how to begin, a little nervous (in fact I’ve been avoiding my computer for a few days). But, here I am. Both the girls are napping, the house is quiet, the cat has me pinned to my chair, so I can’t avoid “the beginning” anymore.

I suppose the best place to start is with a little background. I grew up near Seattle, Washington. I lived with my mom, older sister, and twin brother in a little, blue, one-level house on the bottom of “the whoop-dee-doo hill” (which, sadly, we rarely got to whoop-dee-doo because we always had stop and turn into our driveway). My mom was a full-time teacher and a single mom to the three of us. I don’t remember much in the way of her cooking, which probably isn’t surprising since I can’t image the thought and effort it took to get anything on the table for us after work and tae-kwon-do and gymnastics and swim team. I do remember “swimming chicken” which we regularly had after swim class, homemade almond milk frozen until slushy, sticky-sweet mochi warm and drizzled with honey, and I remember that unfortunate year we were all allergy tested and had quite a lot of soy ice cream. Mostly, I remember chocolate chip cookies.

My mom, sister and I made cookies together often. I can’t remember if we made the recipe on the Tollhouse chocolate chip bag or another, but we made a lot of cookies in that little blue house. We would get out the “cookie spoon” and the big, heavy bowl and set to work. The specific memories are a bit vague but I remember my childhood, and teenage years dotted by batches of cookies. My sister and I both make chocolate chip cookies every other month or so. Usually, during one of our daily or twice daily phone calls, one of us will mention that we made cookies and it’s a little contagious, cookie baking. We used to team up to bake them when we babysat together, which sometimes resulted in huge, disastrous messes. So whenever she makes cookies, I feel compelled to get out the old cookie spoon, which ended up in my possession, and whip up a batch.

Over the last 25 years of cookie baking, the first half of which Tollhouse was my guide, I have slowly developed my own recipe. A little extra vanilla, perfectly creamed butter and sugar… I always have cookie dough balls in the freezer, ready to pop in the oven at a moments notice. I love making them with Gigi, and soon Lulu will join the fray. There’s something truly fantastic about watching a two and half year old eat a chocolate chip cookie. Gigi dunks it in her milk and practically slurps it down, then, when she gets to the last little chunk of cookie, she plunks it into her glass of milk, then tips the cup back drinking the last of the milk and the last of the cookie in one enthusiastic go. I admire her technique.

Baking cookies with Gigi makes me feel so wonderful… cozy, confident, very mom-like. In some ways it feels like chocolate chip cookies are the only tradition passed down from my mom to us girls and, if nothing else, my girls will know how to bake chocolate chip cookies when it’s all said and done.

PIN

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Dry Ingredients.
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tiny pinch of freshly shaved nutmeg, optional
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chocolate chips

Wet Ingredients:.
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions.
Preheat the oven 350 degrees. 

Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a small bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream together the sugars and the butter, then add in the vanilla.  Whisk the eggs in another small bowl before adding them to the creamed sugar mixture.  Once this is all mixed together, slowly sprinkle in the flour and mix until it’s incorporated.  Mix in the chocolate chips.

Using a spoon, scoop up some dough and roll it into a ball in the palm of your hand.  Place it on a baking sheet.  Continue making your dough balls until you have them spaced out (about 2-3 inches apart) on your cookie sheet.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until golden brown on the outside and light brown in the middle.  If the cookies are frozen* they will need to be baked 12-14 minutes.  Enjoy!

*I usually bake up one sheet and cover a separate cookie sheet with cookie dough balls and slide in in the freezer for fresh baked cookies whenever I want.  Once they are frozen and won’t stick together I put them all into the resealable bag.

PRINTABLE RECIPE.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

You can watch the cooking video for these cookies that Gigi and I made here.