Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's a classic recipe that I really don't make all that often! I actually did not use the Toll House recipe this time either, which is what I would typically do. Instead, I used a recipe that Mike's mom uses and very nicely shared with me! She makes a tasty chocolate chip cookie so I thought I'd try my hand at making one too! Here is the recipe, according to Linda. :)

-1 and 1/2 sticks butter or margarine

-1/2 cup white sugar

-1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

-1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

-1 tsp. real vanilla extract

-2 cups all-purpose flour (OR, 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, or 1 cup of each - I did 1/2 cup wheat flour and 1 and 1/2 regular flour this time)

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1 and 1/2 to 2 cups of Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips

Beat the butter or margarine until it is soft. Add both sugars and beat until mixed well. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat well. Add the dry ingredients (mixed all together and added all at once, or one dry ingredient at a time), and beat until mixed in. Mix in the chocolate chips with a spoon. Add more chips if it doesn't look like the dough has enough... :)

Place spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 12 - 15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. Remove from oven, let sit for a minute on the cookie sheet, and cool on a cooling rack.

Linda also shared with me what she often likes to do, which is freeze the dough to bake the cookies later. I actually did this myself this time around! I made the dough on Monday evening, froze the dough, and then baked them tonight (Wednesday). What I did to freeze the dough was roll the dough into balls and then place them on aluminum foil.

I then wrapped them completely in the foil and stored them in a freezer bag. When I baked them a couple days later, I did not thaw the dough; I just let them sit out for a few minutes while the oven preheated. Linda mentioned that frozen cookie dough will tend to make cookies that rise higher than fresh dough and that don't spread as much. I'd definitely say this was true! The cookies really did not spread too much, and they did seem thicker than usual too.

I made two small variations to the recipe... One was intentional and one was not! Hmmmm, what could it be? Well, once I made the dough and before adding the chips, I split the dough in half; in one half I stirred in just the Ghirardelli chocolate chips, and in the other half I added a mixture of chocolate chips and peanut butter M&M's. Here is a picture of a few cookies with the chips and M&M's.

Okay, as for the UNintentional alteration to the original recipe... After I made the dough Monday night and put it in the freezer, I was at my laptop looking over the recipe again. And lo and behold, I saw that the recipe called for baking soda...and what did I add??? Baking powder!!! Oh my goodness. I always meticulously read over recipes and double and triple check the ingredients. Apparently I was off my game that night! So I panicked at first and starting googling about "what happens if you accidentally add baking powder in cookies instead of baking soda"..... What was said on websites varied quite a bit, but on a positive note, most did say that adding powder instead of soda is a "better" mistake than adding soda instead of powder. So I started to feel a little better. I figured I'd better not give these cookies to anyone (that's why I was baking them - to give them away) without trying them first since I made such a blunder! So right then I went to the freezer, took out two cookies, and baked them in the toaster oven. Megan helped me taste test... And guess what? They were okay!! We both actually liked them. I was pretty nervous about it, so I was quite relieved when they were still tasty. PHEW! We thought there might have been a slight difference in taste, but that may have been because we were trying to detect if they were different. Anyway, so that's that!!

Here is one last picture of a cookie cut in half... It almost looks like it's not cooked quite thoroughly...deeeelish! It's like a cookie dough cookie. ;-)