[bake]

chocolate chip cookies

20151213: [ sawall > bake ] { recipe }

My mother taught me how to bake, and one of the first recipes I learned was cookies - chocolate chip, oatmeal, and over a dozen different types for Christmas. My personal favorite is still chocolate chip, and it's what I usually make when baking at home.

This recipe is based on one that my mother's friend passed along to her but has several modifications based on trial and error, as well as some experimentation with several recipes I've found. I like my cookies darker and more earthy, which is why I don't just use all purpose flour. I've also come up with a gluten-free variant that I think tastes great - some daysI like it even more than wheat!

ingredients

  • 1 cup butter [melted or whipped]
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup brown sugar [lightly packed]
  • 3 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 eggs [add 1 egg yolk if making gluten free]
  • 2 1/4 cup flour mix
    • normal: 1 3/4 cups white flour, 1/2 cup buckwheat or whole wheat
    • gluten free: 1 cup oat flour, 3/4 cup buckwheat flour, 1/2 cup quiona flour
    • oaty: swap 1/2 cup rolled oats for 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup nuts [optional]

directions

  1. melt or beat butter until whipped. melted butter will make the cookies flatter, more chewy, and sugary. whipped will make them softer and more cake-like.
  2. beat sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and eggs into butter
  3. slowly mix in 1 1/4 cup flour
  4. mix in salt and baking soda
  5. mix in more flour, slowly, until the batter is thick and gooey, which might not be all of the remaining flour. this is the magic step - you have to mix it "until it feels right", which takes practice. try not to get it too dry, it's easier to add more flour and hard to effictively offset too much flour with liquids at this point.
  6. mix in chocolate chips and nuts if you're using them.
  7. spoon cookies onto cookie sheet, using about 1 1/2 tbsp per cookie.
  8. optionally grind some salt onto the cookies
  9. optionally press some nuts into the top of the cookies
  10. bake at 325 for about 15 minutes. take the cookies out when the edges are starting to get dry. let them sit out for another few minutes - they aren't actually done until at least 5 minutes after you took them out of the oven.