My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe in the Deseret News "C" Section a while ago and I must admit, I haven't ever tried it. How many of you have recipes you WANT to make but haven't yet? Yeah.... Anyways! I needed to bring something to share for a family barbecue today and I just so happened to have all of the ingredients to these. And they turned out FABULOUSLY! Chewy and flavorful but not too overbearing. Easy to make and easy to make right (big instead of completely flattened, despite the lack of a good mixer.) This will be my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies from now on! If you are wondering why the cookies look "swirled" it is because my chips melted before cooking. Blast this wretched summer! But I think it adds some fun to the normal boring look of a chocolate chip cookie.

NOTE FOR INEXPERIENCED CHEFS! When you take a cookie sheet out of the oven it is, obviously, STILL HOT! If you don't want your cookies to keep cooking even while outside of the oven you need to take them off of the pan. I cooked my cookies for 7 minutes and took them off immediately (be careful to not let them fall apart) and they were fabulous. Make sure the EDGES are golden brown and then take them out of the oven.

EXTRA NOTE! Never add the amount of flour a cookie recipe calls for all at once, up front. I usually start with about 2/3rds of the amount it calls for and work my way up, little by little, until the batter is just very slightly sticky. If you add too much flour your cookies will be hard and not soft and chewy. For this recipe I used about 2 3/4 cups of flour and it was perfect. 

OUR FAVORITE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

From Deseret News by Kimberly Barzee

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
3 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, oil, sugars, egg and vanilla. Add four, salt, and baking soda. Mix well, then stir in chocolate chips. Drop from a cookie scoop onto a parchment-lined or greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes; remove from oven just before they start to brown. If cookies are frozen, add a few minutes onto the cooking time.

FUNNY STORY! You'll be glad to know that these cookies are very versatile. I realized the day after I made them that 2/3 cups of butter is 10 + 2/3 rds Tablespoons. I only used 5 1/3 when I made them orginally. And when I made it again today for my family I forgot the butter entirely! And every time they were still very good. So maybe they would be even better if you but the amount of butter it actually calls for... :-)