Cookies 101

If you don't already know, baking is my passion. There are certain things I do not allow in my household because I will totally binge. Cookies, ice cream, cakes and pies are my vice. I will eat them non-stop. As a result, I know cookies forwards and backwards and am pretty darn good at making and eating them. That being said, I do not allow store bought cookie dough in my house. I am a cookie snob and proud of it. You can make homemade cookies so easily and they taste so much better than anything you can buy that it just isn't worth it to me.

So today I am going to give you a staple recipe for cookies. This is not a sugar cookie recipe. It is a brown sugar cookie recipe, typically what you would use for chocolate chip cookies. The variations of this recipe are endless but before we talk about the 'what' lets talk about the 'how-to.'

Like I said, I bake a lot of stuff, and for that stuff I use a few pieces of equipment that you probably already have...

Plastic bowls

Wooden spoon

Sifter

Good vanilla

A good cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (If you don't have the vanilla or cookie sheet, please see my MUST-HAVES post.)

Maybe I'm old school but I swear by wooden spoons. They are a bakers best friend. I really think that they make a difference in your end results and I won't use anything else.

Now one more thing before we talk ingredients, lets talk about the baking process and how not to burn your cookies. Bake at 350 degrees, use the pan and paper I told you about and pull the pan out of the oven BEFORE they are done. When the sides are brown and the center still looks gooey and raw, pull them out. The cookies will continue to cook on the cookie sheet while it cools off. With that being said, if you forget about your cookies while they are in the oven (that would never happen in this house) and they look all the way done, take them out of the oven give them about a minute to firm up and take them off the cookie sheet so they will stop cooking. This is true with pasta also. If you over cook it, you have to take it out of the water and rinse it with cool water to stop the cooking process.

So now about the recipe.. you can put anything in these cookies you want. Chocolate chips, nuts, M&Ms, whatever. I personally like to use 1/2 a cup of chopped pecans, one big Hershey chocolate bar and 2 Milky Way bars cut into chunks. The unlimited options make this great for kids and adults. If you decide to get chocolate chips, I do not advise you to get generic or store brand ones. Chocolate is one of the things where you get what you pay for so go for the Ghiradelli or at very least get the Toll House chips.

Also, I use dark brown sugar for chocolate chip cookies and light brown sugar for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. You can use whichever you prefer.

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1/4 tablespoon of baking soda

1/8 tablespoon (a pinch) of salt

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 stick of room temperature lightly salted butter (don't use margarine!!!)

1 egg

1 tablespoon of vanilla

Whatever chips, candy or nuts you prefer

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl. Sift if possible.

2. In another bowl mix your butter and brown sugar with a wooden spoon until it is well mixed and creamy. (If your butter is cold, put it in a bowl in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften before mixing with brown sugar.)

3. Mix egg and vanilla into butter/sugar mix until well incorporated.

4. Gradually mix in your flour mixture.

5. Add your chocolate, nuts, candy or whatever you decide to use. (You can also roll a ball around a Rolo for a gooey center.)

6. Put on lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until edges start to turn brown.

You can make them any size you want...as small as a quarter or scoop the dough on to the pan with an ice cream scoop. Because all ovens are different and sizes vary I can't give you a cook time. I typically put my dough on about the size of a golf ball and they are done in about 10 minutes. These cookies don't get dark brown like store bought cookie dough if you use quality ingredients. Keep an eye on them and watch for the brown edges.

Enjoy!