Cookies!!

Cookies are my weakness. I seriously love cookies. Chocolate chip are my favorite. Earlier this year, I was on a cookie kick and developed some new recipes. Sometime I will share them all with you. But today, I want to share my special chocolate chip cookie recipe. I call them Kristen's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies because they are the best chocolate chip cookies I have had or made. And it's my recipe! I'm very pleased with it - can you tell? :)

I decided to make cookies this morning as a thank-you gift to my good friend Jen, who was kind enough to watch my children for me while I went to the dentist. Thank you Jen!! (In case you were wondering, the cookie-making was much more fun that the dentist!)

Initial mixing. I always add the flavorings (in this case, vanilla and a little almond extract) to the fat (butter) because fat is an excellent flavor distributor and adding it now ensures that every bite is filled with vanilla/almond goodness! You already kind of want to swipe some batter, don't you?

Here it is all mixed up. Yum! Oh, and I did swipe some batter at this point! I had to make sure I didn't leave anything out!

I use a tablespoon-sized scoop to portion out the batter so that all the cookies end up relatively the same size. And I always use parchment paper - the cookies brown so well, never burn or stick, and it is easy clean-up! Ready for the oven...

And the first batch is done! Mmmmmm.... Of course, I had to try one (or two) to make sure they were okay to give away. It's common courtesy, after all.

All packed up.

And ready to go!

And, yes, I did promise you all the recipe, didn't I? Well, here it is. Try them and let me know what you think!

Kristen's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cup (6 ounces) unsalted butter (better quality really does make a better-tasting cookie!)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 eggs
2 cups (9 ounces) self-rising flour*
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together the butter and the sugars. Add extracts. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until blended. Add the flour alternately with the cream, beginning and ending with the flour and mixing after each addition just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and drop by tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lines baking sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are just turning a light golden brown. Be careful not to overbake! Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for one or two minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.

*You may substitute 2 cups (7 ounces) cake flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt for the self-rising flour. Whisk together well before adding to the batter.

A couple of tips: Make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature before mixing. It really does make a difference in the final product! Also, I use self-rising flour because it is a lower-protein flour, like cake flour, and produces a softer cookie with a nicer texture. Because the leavening is already mixed in, you don't have to worry about it being uneven at all in the batter. Of course, you can substitute all-purpose flour, but the cookie won't be as nice in my humble opinion.

Finally, while making these, I realized that I didn't have enough chocolate chips! Gasp! So, I found some milk chocolate in bar form and decided to chop some up and add it to the batter along with the semi-sweet chips that I had. I ended up with a little more than half a cup of the chips and about the same of the chopped milk chocolate. It was soooo good! Necessity being the mother of invention and all, I will definitely keep that change and add chopped milk chocolate (or maybe even try some dark chocolate) in the future as well!

Again, thank you Jen for watching the kids!!!