Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was making cookies this morning for Abram to take to school, and I thought I should post the recipe, because this is one of my all-time-most-requested cookies.

I have been accused of leaving out an ingredient so that nobody else can make the cookies turn out like mine. I would never do that. My secret to making these cookies (and all my cookies) is that I follow the recipe. I can't tell you how many times I've had people say, "My cookies didn't turn out like yours." I then ask whay he or she did, and many times he or she will say, "I used margarine," or "I used crisco." DUH! The recipe calls for butter! They are not interchangeable! I haven't bought margarine in decades, and the only recipes I used crisco in are snickerdoodles and oatmeal raisin--1/2 butter, 1/2 crisco. For some reason that works out better with those cookies. I suppose my other "secret" is that I use a KitchenAid, which is really no secret at all.

One time I was assigned to bring 10 dozen cookies to the Pinewood Derby (I detest the Pinewood Derby, but as we have 5 boys, I am doomed to attend one for the next long, long time). One other person from another pack was also assigned the same. I walked in with my beautiful cookies on my Jill signature tray (people have come to know which tray my cookies are on), and set them on the table next to her flat, pale, disgusting cookies on paper plates. She looked at me like a puppy dog and said, "Do those cookies taste as good as they look?" I told her politely that most people really like them. The dinner began, and when it was all over, my 10 dozen cookies were long gone, and she had to take hers back home. Even hungry little cub scouts wouldn't eat her cookies.

My philosophy is that if you're going to eat a cookie, it has to be worth the calories. These definitely are, especially when they are warm. It's a recipe I took off of the back of a Gold Medal flour bag my freshman year at BYU 19 years ago. Still a classic.

Jill's Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 sticks of butter-not melted, not room temperature--slightly cold

1 1/4 c sugar

1 1/4 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

4 c flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

4 c chocolate chips (yes, 4 cups!)

Mix butter in the KitchenAid until it is smooth. Add sugars, eggs and vanilla and mix well. Whisk dry ingredients together in a separate bowl (flour, soda, salt) and add to the butter mixture. Mix well, add chocolate chips and mix again. Use a 1-oz. (2TBSP) cookie scoop to make balls of dough, placing each about 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Before putting dough into oven, smash each cookie slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake at 350 for 12-13 minutes, until lightly browned.