Our Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies
The first recipe I remember using and the one I get asked for the most are one and the same. They also happen to be for the best chocolate chip cookies.
When I was little and living in Tokyo, we used to make these and sell them to the Japanese school girls on their way home, in their hard backpacks and plaid skirts. They would touch my blond hair for good luck and I’d blush/cringe, but I’d be counting my yen in my head and a few hours and almost $70 later, I’d feel like a very entrepreneurial six year old (who certainly did not know the world entrepreneurial yet).
Fast forward eight years to New Hampshire where I went through a phase in the seventh grade where I made these cookies twice a week. And then to high school where we baked them for all my brother’s xc races (well, maybe not all). I’ve easily made this recipe over 1000 times.
Anyway, its a recipe I’ve had memorized for over a decade and a family+friend favorite.
My one word of caution, with anything that calls for flour, and especially for these cookies, there is a small art to getting them to turn out perfectly. They taste delicious no matter what, but an extra quarter cup of flour on a damp day or at high altitude makes a difference in how fluffy they appear.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 C Butter (2 sticks), room temp (softened but not melted)
- 1 C White Sugar
- 1 C Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla (I’ve been using Mexican Vanilla for the last year or so)
- 2 1/3 C Flour
- 1 Tsp Baking Soda
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 C Rolled Oats
- 1 C Chocolate Chips
**Sometimes we’ll sub the chocolate chips for M&Ms, or butterscotch chips, or mint chips, or we’ll add some chopped nuts, or we’ll use a chopped chocolate bar – the variations are just as good, promise.
What You’ll Do:
- Cream butter, white sugar, and brown sugar well (this is important).
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix (don’t over mix here because over beating the eggs makes your dough a bit tough).
- In a separate bowl, sift in flour and add the baking soda and salt.
**I never actually use two separate bowls. I simply add the flour (I skip the sifting and just shake the measuring cup as I’m dumping it in which adds a bit of air to the flour) and the salt and baking soda. I then stir just the dry ingredients as they’re sitting on top of the wet ingredients so the soda and salt are mixed into the flour. Then, I stir the wet and the dry together.
- Stir in rolled oats and chocolate chips.
- Scoop into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes
**Having made these cookies in dozens of ovens, I’ve learned baking time varies a lot by oven. At home in my parents oven, they take 7 minutes. In our oven in Ohio they take 11. I’ve had them take as much as 12 minutes but usually they’re great somewhere between 9-11.
Happy baking!