Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

Is there anything better than good old classic chocolate chip cookies? Especially homemade chocolate chip cookies? I swear, somedays I see the dried, oily packaged Mr. Christie cookies at the supermarket and I can’t believe people buy and enjoy them. Or that as a child, I used to enjoy them.

This is the chocolate chip recipe I used growing up. The first time I remember making them myself with no help, I was around 11 when my mother was pregnant with my sister and had a hard time cooking without getting nausea. From then on afterwards, I had to double the recipe, as with four people (later five) in the house, the cookies wouldn’t last very long.

I’m not sure where this recipe came from. It’s possible that its modified from the old and tattered Purity Cookbook that’s been in my parents’ house for as long as I can remember, with some pages transparent with grease and ripped/re-taped as to not loose the treasured recipes. My brother is a big fan of another recipe he found online, but I always found myself going back to this recipe..

When it comes to making these cookies, I grew up using margarine squares instead of butter, just because butter can be expensive for something that we used to make so often in my household. My grandma, whom I probably inherited my love of baking from, swears by using shortening (such as Crisco) and I’ve never denied her chocolate chip cookies when she makes them. If you are a butter fan though, that’s not a problem either! I tend to save butter for making sugar cookies, but if you have to have the taste in your cookies, I won’t deny you that pleasure.

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Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter/margarine or shortening, room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Cream butter/margarine (or shortening, if that is what you are using) with the white sugar and brown sugar until thoroughly creamed. Beat egg and vanilla in a separate bowl and add to mixture.
3. Mix flour, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips and (optional) nuts in a separate bowl. Hand mix moist ingredients with floured mixture until well-blended.
4. Drop batter by the tablespoon onto cookie sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes until lightly brown (for a more chewy cookie) or medium brown (for a crispy cookie).
5. Let cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to cookie racks to cool completely.

Enjoy!