I finally did it

Since I have been little, I have been making chocolate chip cookies. I used to love making them with my mom. It actually is the first recipie that I memorized. I used to hate adding the flour because I thought it ruined the taste, hence some sloppy cookies.

So, I marry this man who LOVES chocolate chip cookies. His nanny growing up had this recipie that made Ken weak in the knees. So while we were dating, I practiced making him the perfect cookie. I worked with recipies I found online. I got the recipe from his nanny and worked with that. Then, I went through this spell where all my cookies sucked. Seriously, I would not even eat them. Ken pretty much would eat them all to make me happy. Then I decided to get out of my slump and see what Martha Stewart had to say. I found her recipe for soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies. Now, Ken likes them crisp, I like them chewy. What's that they say? Marriage=compromise? Thank goodness for shortening. I sub that in for half of what would have been a full cup of butter, added another egg and bam, I declare:

I MADE THE PERFECT COOKIE (for the Kostrzewa household.)

The dough:

1/2 cup shortening

6 tablespoons of butter/magarine

*I put less just cause, made the cookie crispier

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

*I'm so used to equal parts of these two sugars, but with more brown sugar, makes them sweeter.

TURN ON MIXER!

Always, always... scrape while you go.

Next throw in there

2 teaspoons of salt (yes, TWO!)

2 teaspoons of vanilla (yes, TWO!!)

2 eggs (at room temperature)

MIX! SCRAPE!

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

2 2/3 cups of flour (added about 1/2 a cup at a time)

*With the flour, I always feel that after I bake, I look at the cookies and think, "should have added more flour." You want the dough to be sticky but not stick to you finger when you touch it. I have found that if the dough falls off the mixing blade, there is too much flour. For those chewy, yet crispy cookies, a little bit sticky works. I put this much flour in.

2 cups of chocolate chips

Take a few bites of the dough, enjoy... it's dang tasty.

Measure out Tablespoon size balls on the cookies sheet, 4x4.

Bake at 350 for 14 minutes.

BAM! It's cookie time!!!

 And the family approves!!! Avery was so thrilled, she savored that thing.

 And a happy papa with his milk and cookies.

It seems only approriate to read "The Real Mouse Cookie" with the remaining cookie clutched tighty in her fist.

 

For a baker like myself, I feel like I can move on from this quest of finding the best chocolate chip cookie. Maybe I'll try something dangerous next, but know that in our house, there will always be the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. Always.