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Hosted by Trista at The Pumkin Patch.
No, I don't have my days mixed up. I know it's Friday - almost Saturday, and I'm late for posting this. However, I've been super busy - between being at the church 4 nights this week doing registration for basketball and working every spare second on my business website, I haven't had much time for posting. But it's cookie edition this week, and I really wanted to share my favorite cookie recipe...even if it's late!
First of all, I need to tell you - I can cook or bake pretty much anything...except cookies. For YEARS I've tried to make good cookies. But for some unexplained reason, I had been unsuccessful.
But that all changed last year. A wonderful lady named Candy, who makes cookies and cakes for a living, posted her recipe for chocolate chip cookies on my favorite message board. Several gals made them and kept reporting back that they were totally awesome. So I thought I'd give it a shot - what do I have to lose, right?
Oh my sweet merciful heavens!!! Guess what?
SWEET SUCCESS!!
I am NOT kidding - these were the best chocolate chip cookies I think I had ever tasted. And the true test? My husband LOVED them! He couldn't believe I had actually made them...from scratch!
They were so good that I made about 80 dozen of them last year to give out at Christmas to family and friends. I hope they liked them too!
This makes a very nice and chewy cookie - my favorite. My friend wasn't as crazy about them, because she likes a crunchier cookie. For me - the chewier the better - as long as they are actually done. These are fantastic.
So now on to the recipe!!
AWARD WINNING SOFT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
2 1/4 C flour
1 t baking soda
1 cup butter, softened (NOT MARGARINE!)
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C white sugar
1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 C chocolate chips
1 C nuts (optional)
Oven 350. Sift together flour and baking soda, set aside.
Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture, Finally stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cooies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 mintues in the preheated oven.
Make sure you get real butter and let it sit out at room temperature to soften. Don't microwave it - you don't want it to be melted!
Oh - and just before I went to make all these cookies last year, my mixer burned out. I discovered I could mix the entire batch by hand with my wooden spoon. And honestly, I don't know if I'll ever bother actually using my mixer for these!
You must have a lot stronger arms than I have!!! I have made this recipe before. I think I saw it on Allrecipes or somewhere. Anyway, I tried using my mixer to mix them and it was working major overtime to get everything blended. I was afraid of burning it out by the time it all got mixed. I have tried mixing it by hand, but it was not the type of effort that I was willing to put out for cookies. They tasted good, but my old recipe was so much easier to blend.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to make these cookies really over the top, you can do what I do and purchase two or three (depending upon how much batter there is, I can't remember how much it makes) Hershey Symphony bars (the large ones...7oz., I think), and break them roughly into pieces to use in place of the chocolate chips. (When I break them, I break each rectangle of chocolate into thirds.) I also use pecan halves instead of chopped nuts. I always get rave reviews on my cookies when I make them this way, because they turn out more like gourmet cookies with chunks of chocolate and nuts.
Michelle, if you aren't using a stand mixer, you may want to look into getting one. I found that I kept burning out the motors on my little hand mixers too much.
ReplyDeleteIf you do a lot of baking though, get one that can handle a lot of flour. I'm looking at a DeLonghi (http://www.kitchenshop.com/catalog/DSM-800.shtml)
It has all metal pieces and goes for up to 11 cups of flour. I started burning out the motor of my Kitchen-Aid before I realized it could only handle 3 cups of flour, and most of my recipes called for a lot more than that.
The cookies look really good. I have a recipe that's similar, except for the sugar ratios. I might have to try this one. My grandma gave me her secret recipe, but I'm always looking for good recipes. :D
Wow, this looks like a yummee recipe, and easy, too! I can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fabulous recipe! I may try it this coming weekend! Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI am so going to try these...I am definitely not a cookie baker, but I am hoping this recipe will do it for me!
ReplyDelete