So I've had a baking itch lately. I guess it's a cooking itch in general. But something about putting batter in the oven and getting a delicious sweet gooey thing back out gets me every time. Thank goodness for chemical reactions.
I have a soft spot for chocolate chip cookies. I think the soft spot comes from growing up with a constant yellow tub of tollhouse cookie dough in my refrigerator so that whenever a chocolate craving hit all I had to do was scoop a couple (dozen) onto a cookie sheet and I was in business. Now that I've had a few different types of scratch made cookies I've realized that there is life after tollhouse cookie dough tubs. So here is my FAVORITE recipe at the moment for chocolate chip cookies and also how to freeze them so that you can have quick access anytime you just need some fresh made gooey goodness in your life.
Recipe
The original recipe I found on Pinterest, here's the link adventuresofmel Check her out, her blog is AMAZING! (PS... Pinterest I love your guts. Follow me here)
Here's my version
Ingredients
- 2 cups butter
- 1.5 cups granulated sugar
- 1.5 cups light brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. salt (Yes it's alot. Mel is apparently a genius because its SO good.)
- 3 cups chocolate chips
- 2.5 cups crushed walnuts (If you want. If not, add more chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 375° and grab the BIGGEST bowl you have. I'm not kidding.
- I use sticks of butter and microwave it to make combining easier, usually 30 seconds gets the job done. You don't want it completely melted, but soft enough to combine with sugar. Once its to the desired constancy mix in both sugars with a whisk until thoroughly combined.
- Switch to a rubber spatula and mix in eggs and vanilla. A whisk is too clingy and will make mixing more difficult.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt. The original recipe calls for sifting. To be honest I just dump the ingredients in, and I still like the result.
- Mix in chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Use two spoons to drop cookies onto cookie sheet. They should be about 2 inches apart or they will clump together.
- Bake at 375° for 12-14 minutes. Start checking them around 11 minutes, cooking time will vary depending on how big your cookies are.
- Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool. Or eat them warm with milk (My favorite)
Now you will notice that I'm having you make A TON of cookie dough. Why, you ask??
Well... remember that tub of tollhouse cookies we were talking about? I'm helping you make your own. If you don't want to freeze your dough, make half the recipe and bake them all that day. But as for me, I don't care if it's harder to mix more dough, I want to make dough once and bake as many times as I can.
To freeze dough is easy. Here's how I do it.
- Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper.
- Make the rest of your dough into 1" round balls.
- Place on lined cookie sheet, close together but not touching.
- Freeze for 1-2 hours.
- Take cookie sheet out of freezer and transfer frozen dough to an airtight ziplock bag.
- Store for as long as it takes you to bake them off.
I personally am in love with freezing dough since my family can go through cookies like nobody's business and they are never as good as they are on the day they come out of the oven.
To bake the frozen dough simply take out however many you want, place on a cookie sheet like you would the fresh dough and bake for a little longer than you would the fresh. The frozen cookies may be a little more round than the original cookies you baked, but they are just as delicious. If you don't like the shape, simply take them out halfway through baking and push the dough down before letting the baking complete.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you guys try these out and if you love them as much as I do!
No comments:
Post a Comment