Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Chilly Day
Life is about moments and opportunities. These present themselves to me in the form of cancelled events. I love at home snowy mornings. Sometimes this is where the heart finds it’s morning and is refreshed. And these mornings are perfect for baking Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies.
My Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Story
This Saturday is one of those chilly snowy days. I find home with Aadi thanks to a rescheduled activity. With the Dad and daughter away, we decided to work on chocolate chip cookies to for a hostess gift. After all, how can one go wrong with one of America’s favorite cookies. Yep most of us will agree that it is indeed number one.
To brave the super chilly temperatures, we stayed in what we call our cozy and entertained ourselves baking in the kitchen.
And, I am sure we would all have an opinion on texture, size and consistency. I thought it would be a fun experiment to read this with my son, I knew it would appeal to his scientific instincts.
We wanted crispy with a soft center and settled for tweaking the recipe with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, to offer us a crisp circled, soft centered cookie.
Of course we also wanted a deeper hued cookie, so we tried baking it at a slightly higher temperature.
And to mix things up just a little, I dared not to use the classic Nestle Toll House cookie recipe as is, but instead used the recipe, swapped about 3/4 cup of the flour for almond meal from Trader Joe’s and used Trader Joe’s chocolate chips. The result was quite good, in fact, good enough to be sanctioned for the next round of the robotics competition. Well, the girls have sanctioned a cookie too, and I shall feature that soon as well, before as they say the proverbial hell breaks loose.
One last week and then we trade robotics for soccer and then we breeze through another year. Next month, we shall have a newly minted teenager in house, but I shall tell you about that next month post robotics when her moment in the sun arrives. For now, pour yourself a tall glass of milk and get in the mood for these chocolate chip cookies.
A recipe for chocolate chip cookies, mostly following the classic Toll House recipe with a few variations.
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup almond meal (I use Trader Joe's)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks butter softened)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (1 12 oz pack) chocolate chip morsels
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the the all purpose flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt and set aside.
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Place the softened butter in a mixing bowl and beat in the sugars until soft and creamy. I use a wooden spoon for this and find that it works perfectly fine.
- Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well. Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Gradually add in the dry ingredients and mix well to incorporate and mix well.
- Stir in the chocolate chip morsels.
- Drop rounded spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 9 minutes, turn off the heat and let them rest for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.