Who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies?  They are by far my favorite, and its a good thing my kids do too!  Ever couple of weeks we make a big huge batch of dough.  Bake up a dozen and freeze the rest.  A hint on the freezing, use your cookie scoop to portion your dough, place it on a cookie sheet and freeze.  Once frozen put your portioned cookie dough scoops into a freezer bag.  Then you can bake up cookies anytime you want, and have as many as you want.  Even if it’s just one.  But if you can eat just one, I salute you.  Back to the topic at hand, I have spent years trying to perfect my chocolate chip cookie dough.  I think I have finally achieved that perfect status.  (At least my our standards)  I am very aware that many people have different opinions on how a chocolate chip cookie should be, some like fluffy, others crispy, some chewy, some cakey, some flat, some thick… I could go on.  For me, I prefer a one to two bite cookie that has a slight crisp on the outside but perfectly gooey and melty in the middle.  Are you drooling yet?  Here is my perfect recipe:

1 1/2 Cups brown sugar

1 Cup room unsalted butter

1 tspish Vanilla (or almond extract)

1 large egg at room temp

2 1/4 Cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 heavy tsp coarse salt

24oz semisweet chocolate chips (or you can do a combo of any kind you want. I love to mix dark and milk chocolate, or semi with peanut butter chips. YUM!)

Beat sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla in your mixer with the paddle attachment. Set mixer to “stir” and slowly add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stop mixer and scrape sides. You can now add your chips and hand stir in, or turn the mixer back to stir and add them that way. The mixer breaks little pieces of chocolate off of the chips giving you flecks throughout as well as the chips. I think it’s yummy.

Bake for 8 to 11 minutes at 375. (or until golden brown and delish. I generally take them out when the centers aren’t fully set. It’s about 1 minute before everyone else in the world thinks they are done. This ensures that the edges don’t burn. I really really hate burnt cookies.  Let them sit on the sheet for about 2 minutes, then try not to eat them all. I mean let them cool.

We made these the other day and got lots of messy faces when the kids tasted the dough to make sure it was edible.  Such brave, thoughtful kids I have.  Of course, I was feeling slightly creative so we had an experiment.  I saw recipes all over the web for chocolate chip cookies with Oreos in the middle.  Those are good.  Then I saw one that included brownies too.  Genius.  The recipe I saw put everything into a brownie pan and baked them like brownies.  This scared me, I was sure I would eat the entire pan at once.  So to have some sort of portion control, I baked them in muffin tins.  To do this you will need a package of Oreos, a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and brownie mix all mixed up.

First take your muffin tins and spray with cooking spray to make sure nothing sticks.  Next take a scoop of your chocolate cookie and put it in the muffin pans.  Squish it down so it fills the bottom.  Top the chocolate chip cookie with an Oreo.  Don’t eat the Oreos or you might not have enough.  Tragedy.  Next get your brownie batter and scoop some on top of each Oreo/Chocolate chip cookie.  When you’re done, gently tap the pan on the counter to help the brownie spread and cover everything. Then bake.  I baked them at 350 for about fifteen minutes.  You need to watch them pretty close and take them out when the brownies appear to be set.  When you take them out use a butter knife and gently run it around the edges to loosen the goods.  Let them cool and pop them out.  Then take a bite and thank me. 

-Stephanie Wright