As promised, I am including some of my family’s favorite recipes on this blog. It is fitting that I include this cookie recipe first because of its status of being both the most requested and most homemade item that we eat in our family. Many of my friends, neighbors and church members have received plates of these cookies also because they as always a hit and are quite fast and simple to make.
For this recipe you will first need to preheat the stove to 375 degrees. Then take two sticks of butter out of the fridge to soften while the oven is heating. If you are wondering if you can substitute margarine or butter-flavored Crisco for butter, you can. I used to always make these with soft margarine, but I switched to butter awhile back and prefer it now. The only thing that will not work is “low fat” margarine of butter substitutes. Any butter substitute with less than 80 percent fat or oil will ruin the cookies completely, and they will all stick to the pan! Butter really works best for these!
At this point, it is good to check the location of your cat or cats, if you have them, because cats love to get into sticks of butter when you are not looking! Note that if you don’t have a cat, you are missing out on several steps that others have to take whenever they are attempting get anything done instead of submitting to the demands of one or more cats.
Next, gather the remaining items and ingredients that you will need for this recipe. Set out a large bowl and one or two large cookie sheets. I usually use an electric hand mixer to make these as well, but if you make sure the butter is soft, you could use a large wooden spoon for stirring. You will need measuring cups measuring 1 Cup, 1/2 Cup, and 1/4 Cup., along with spoons measuring 1 teaspoon and 1/2 teaspoon. I usually have a fork, a plastic scraper, and a tablespoon available also. I have recently begun covering my pans with parchment paper and love how it works for this recipe. Go ahead and grab parchment paper, if you have it, but you can make these using uncreased cookie sheets as well. You will need a spatula to remove cookies, and if you have them, a cooling rack or two.
If you are in the habit of buying chocolate chips every time you go grocery shopping like I am, then you may already have these ingredients on hand, which is one of the reasons I’ve included “simple” in the title of this post. The ingredients include flour, brown sugar, white sugar, an egg, two sticks of butter, baking soda, salt, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Neither milk nor coffee is part of this recipe, but I can tell you now that these cookies often taste even better when accompanied with either of these beverage choices!
The other reason this recipe is “simple” is because you only need one bowl. If your butter has not softened by the time you gathered all of you materials and ingredients, you can unwrap it, place it in this bowl and microwave for about 20 seconds. Another hack I use because I go through butter so quickly. is that I have one box each of both salted and unsalted butter just stored at room temp in the cabinet next to my refrigerator, but I know most people refrigerate it, so if you don’t have warm butter on hand, you will need to soften it.
So in your bowl, start with the softened butter, then add the two sugars, then crack an egg into it, discarding the shell. Use the hand mixer to combine those until creamy.
Next, add the flour right on top of the creamed ingredients. Then dump the salt and baking soda on top of the mound of flour. At this point, mix the salt and baking soda into the flour slightly with a fork because sometimes the baking soda has little chunks that need to be broken up by this process. This step is designed to prevent accidentally biting into a yummy cookie later and getting a bitter glob of yuck!
Once you have made sure any chunks of baking soda are broken and both salt and baking soda seem evenly distributed in the flour (this really only takes seconds unless your baking soda is really old), combine the creamed ingredients with the flour mixture, using the hand mixer. Then dump in the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed.
Sometimes, at this point in the process, the mixture will look just like cookie dough is supposed to look. It may even seem really creamy, especially if you have substituted soft margarine for butter.
Often at this point, your dough will appear a little crumbly in the bowl and not formed into a lump. I’m not always sure this happens, but it can usually be easily rectified. When I made this recipe the other day, the batter seemed dry and crumbly after mixing. I took a photo because that just means it may require some squishing up by hand or a large spoon. Just make sure your hands are still clean (especially if you’ve had to lift your cat up or shoo him away because he was wanting to “help” bake cookies once already!) Go ahead and squish the dough. If you have an aversion to using your hands, a large spoon can press the dough against the edge of the bowl until it sticks together. It should form into a clump. If it doesn’t, you may have forgotten to add your egg. If you are sure you have added your egg, but the dough still doesn’t stick together, you can usually correct the problem by just adding another tablespoon or two of butter. After this step, your mixture should be of a consistency that it can be scooped with a spoon. Your dough is now ready!
Make sure that your cookie sheets are lined with parchment paper if you plan to use it. The benefits of parchment have to do with it making removing the cookies and cleaning the sheets easier. If you aren’t using parchment, ungreased cookie sheets work fine. It’s time to use a spoon to place approximately 1 1/2 in diameter scoops of cookie dough on your cookie sheet(s). I will usually place 15 to 17 cookies on each pan. My oven only allows for me to place one cookies sheet on the middle shelf. Sometimes I will wait and bake one sheet at a time.
If I’m in a hurry, I will place one sheet on the middle shelf and one on the bottom and then one on the bottom, but if I do this, I will switch the locations mid way through baking, in order for the cookies to bake evenly. There are pros and cons to this because baking twice allows for you to have a chance at a good pan, if you burn the first. Because I usually burn my second batch (because apparently, after the first I have moved on from baking-mode), I am finding that baking them all at once actually works well for me!
These cookies take 8-12 minutes to bake. Ideally, they are done when the outside edge of the cookie is slightly brown and the inside looks cooked but still soft. They are good when slightly darker, but if they bottoms are dark black, they can only be considered a learning experience; they won’t even be good dipped in milk!
After removing the cookie sheets from the oven, let them sit for about five minutes before trying to move them. After this, you can transfer them to a cooling rack, but they’ll be fine if you just leave the on the pan, if you don’t have racks for cooling. If you leave your kitchen while the cookies are still cooling, remember to be mindful of that cat! Once the cookies are cooled, they can be stored in a sealed container or zip-lock bag.
As the baker, it is important to test out your cookies both when they are warm and after they have cooled! Even though this is a good and simple recipe, you still deserve much reward for your efforts! Thank you for trying one of my favorite recipes. I hope these become a hit in your home too!
Good and Simple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup/two sticks softened butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In large bowl, mix together butter, sugars, and egg with electric hand mixer.
- Add flour on top of the butter/sugar/egg mixture.
- Add baking soda and salt on top of the flour and stir these slightly into the flour.
- Use the electric hand mixer to combine all the ingredients in the bowl.
- Add the chocolate chips and blend with the hand mixer until evenly distributed.
- Place 1 1/2 in diameter clumps of cookie dough on large cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake 8-12 minutes until edges are brown and centers still look soft.
- Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before taking off cookie sheets.
- Place on racks to cool.
