Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been really lazy about photographing my food. I'm sorry for that. On to the post...

I have to be honest, I'm not the hugest fan of chocolate chips. I think they get in the way of the buttery brown sugar goodness of the cookie part of the cookie. But these still have a place in my heart, and Brad likes them, so that was the treat of the weekend.

Just a few notes before we start: You know how the cookies from refrigerated cookie dough are always so beautifully golden, and they have this really great complex toffee flavor that you can never get when you make the cookies yourself? It's because the dough has had time to rest. They leave this out of the recipe on the Nestle Toll House bag, but you are supposed to refrigerate your cookie dough for 3 days for optimal results. I usually don't plan that far ahead, so between advice from my friends--Hey, Tracie!-- and personal experimentation I have learned to compensate for the wait time...and if you do have the time, this recipe is that much better when you refrigerate it!

1-1/4 cup whole wheat flour*
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup semi-sweet or, if you don't like things too sweet, dark chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (F). In a small bowl combine your flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until they reach the consistency of fluffy icing. Then add your eggs one at a time, beating the first one in before adding the second. Keep beating the mixture until it returns to it's fluffy icing consistency after adding each egg. Then add in half of your flour mixture. Incorporate that addition completely before you add in the rest of the flour mixture. Then add in your chips, and stir these in by hand. When you put the cookies on the pan, use a 1 tbsp measuring spoon as your scoop and put rounded scoops on the pan. I put them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake them for 9-11 minutes, or until they're golden. When you take them out they'll still be puffy and not quite done looking, but if they're golden they're done. If they're still beige, they're not done! Let them rest on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. If the cookies are falling apart after the 2 minute cooling time, just pop them back in the oven for 2-3 minutes and let them cool again before putting them on the cooling rack.

This makes about 2-1/2 dozen cookies. (The Nestle Toll House says that this much dough makes 5 dozen cookies...how tiny are those cookies??!)

This post is dedicated to the real star of these cookies...don't worry, there's honorable mention of her spotlight stealing big sister. ;o)



* The whole wheat flour adds to the golden color, along with the dark brown sugar (which is also there to add to that complex toffee flavor we talked about earlier). If you are using white whole wheat flour, then just use 2 -1/4 cups of that rather than the combination of AP and WW flour.