So when my lovely neighbor, Amelia Parrett, made these for her family over Thanksgiving (and we scooted across our shared driveway in our slippers to join them), I didn't appreciate the ramifications of her actions. Many people tout this recipe or that recipe as the greatest for one reason or another, but plain ol' chocolate chip cookies?
The story starts even before that when we went over to their house for dinner November 18th for some Basque Chicken with cous-cous. You lovers of all things Luke will recognize that date as the day before he was born. We were almost a week past our due date and had already tried the infamous labor-inducing garlic pizza at Trios the night before. The Parretts invited us over for food and beer to keep our minds off what wasn't happening. The meal was superb and before we left, Amelia whipped out her recipe cards and jotted down the simple ingredients. "And, oh, by the way, let me give you a good chocolate chip cookie recipe," she said innocently. I should have recognized the peril I was in by the call for turbinado sugar and some hand-crumbled gourmet chocolate bars on the list of ingredients. Nonetheless, I went into labor the next morning and forgot about the recipe until a week later, the day after Thanksgiving.
After sharing pizza and salad with their houseful of guests, Amelia brought out a plate of cookies and brownies. "These are the cookies, the ones I was telling you about last week," she said. I grabbed one (and then four more) and the rest is history. I have made the recipe at least once a week since then, one of which never made it to the oven, if you know what I mean. Tim has forbid me from making them anymore and even hid the Kitchen-Aid stand mixer.
So read on at your own risk...
1 3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c turbinado sugar (sugar-in-the-raw...in baking aisle with other sugars)
1/4 c white sugar
1 c salted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
12 oz chocolate bar pieces
course sea salt
Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl. Stir into butter mixture slowly. Add chocolate pieces. Drop rounded balls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten out top slightly and sprinkle sea salt lightly over the cookies. Bake at 350 for 8-10 min...do NOT overbake!
A few modifications I have made during my extensive relationship with this recipe over the last few months:
* My cheap, practical self still uses chocolate chips--we always have a Costco-sized bag lying around
* Delete white sugar--you will never miss it
* Increase turbinado sugar to 1/3 c (because it is delicious)
* Decrease brown sugar to 1 1/2 c
* Use 1 3/4 c whole wheat flour and 1 3/4 c regular unbleached flour (if you think this makes the recipe
healthy, it does not--don't be delusional)
* Add 1 c oatmeal (and decrease total flour to 3 c)
* Add 1 c toasted pecans or walnuts-yum!
As this is not a food blog, no awesome pictures of cookies, but...
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| Beautiful hand-knit blanket by Grandma Meri-lyn |
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| Only hat he will probably ever have that was not made by his mama... |
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| A man at the dog park said, as he got closer, "oh, you have a little bambino in there. And I thought you were just fat." |
ah. love those cookies. i too, have to limit myself on how often i make them b/c when i do i eat them. all. no kidding.
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