Chocolate Chip Cookies

What can be more classic than a chocolate chip cookie?

These are classic chocolate chip cookies, whether you use nuts or oatmeal or neither. I used oatmeal, since I had some on hand and didn't have any nuts. If you haven't realized by now, I'm a big believer in using ingredients that are already in the kitchen. I rarely go out and buy a special ingredient for a recipe, and almost never buy one I don't think I'll use up or use again (the only exception I can think of is cream of tartar, which I did end up using one more time after I bought it for snickerdoodles).

Anyhoo, on with the recipe.
 

Use hubby to cream butter.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 c. dark brown sugar (I used only 1/4)
• 1/2 c. white sugar (Again, 1/4)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/8 c. flour (I used 1/2 c. white, the rest whole wheat)
• 1/2 tsp. salt (I always leave this out, since I can't stand the taste of salt in cookies)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 c. chopped nuts (or oatmeal, if making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies)
• 1 c. chocolate chips (I used 1/2 c. mixed dark/milk/butterscotch chips)

I altered this recipe, but I stayed truer this time than I usually do. I have adapted this recipe over the years to make my favorite oatmeal raisin cookies in the world, but the recipe is so altered I don't think it would be recognizable. This time, I tried to stay fairly close to the recipe. 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter, gradually add sugars until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix flour & baking soda and add it to wet mix, blending well. Stir in oatmeal/nuts and chocolate chips. Put on greased cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes or until browning at edges.

Before & after.

These turned out really well. My son said they were his favorite cookies now. And even though he'd probably be ecstatic if I gave him a bowl of sugar and a spoon for dessert, he said these were just a little too sweet (and this was after I cut the sugar AND the chocolate chips in half). So, they were plenty sweet. The flour mix was just right so they weren't too heavy. I put them in for 10 minutes, and they were just a little too brown for my liking, but still very good. Next time I'll only use 8 minutes if I'm using a gas oven, which seems to run a little hotter than the electric one I'm used to.

These cookies are easy and delicious, a classic recipe that should be in everyone's repertoire.





PS, the answer to the first question is...Nothing!