The Scoop on Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. Something that is easy to make, yet tastes like you are a Martha Stewart protégé. I’ve been making the same chocolate chip cookie recipe for years (these are “Big 6 cookies” for those that know my baking repertoire and I will post them sometime, promise!), yet after the purchase of my new cookie scoop I decided that I needed to find myself a perfect cookie recipe to use it on.

I cobbled one together, so now I am sharing with you. They are simple and delicious and make me think of being a little girl waiting for cookies to come out of the oven.

Anyhow, before I share the recipe, we need to talk about butter. It seems that as far back as I can remember, there has always been debate amongst my culinary influences about butter vs. margarine... block vs. soft. But here’s the deal, this recipe calls for two very specific items, butter AND soft margarine.

Seriously, this is what makes these cookies outstanding. You are more than welcome to use whatever combination of butter/margarine that floats your boat, but the specific types/amounts that are in this recipe will make your cookies turn out like little bites of heaven. Seriously.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, get to it already.  

The Recipe:

½ cup butter, softened (yep, real buttah, the good stuff)
½ cup TUB Margarine (think Becel)
¾ cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs (large)
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour (I used 1 cup w/w and 2 cups white for this batch)
¾ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. baking soda
1 12-oz. bag chocolate chips (minus the small handful you ate while making the dough)

The method: 

Cream together butter, margarine, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. After 2.5 years of using it, I still look forward to bringing it out every time.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Yeah, I said sift. It’s an extra step, I know. And it’s an extra thing to wash when you’re done, I know that too... BUT there is just something lovely about using sifted ingredients. They blend better, totally not my imagination. Use your mesh strainer if that’s what you have, but if you’re okay with spending about another $5 on kitchen goodies, get thee to Walmart and get a sifter with a squeeze handle. You’ll thank me.

My apologies for the water spots... I believe in air-drying :)

Add the sifted ingredients to creamed mixture at a low speed (this is an important tidbit... nobody likes cleaning up after a flour tornado has swept through), in small increments and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips. Pinch off a bit of the dough. Pop it in your mouth. Yeah... that’s it. Good isn’t it? Just wait till it is in actual cookie form. Giggety.

Scoop onto parchment lined cookie sheets with your handy dandy cookie scoop! Or, if you're thumbing your nose at this awesome tool and going old school, make the amount of dough per cookie equal to 1 tablespoon. But if your use the scoop, they'll be perfect and uniform. Come on... that just screams Virgo-happy-place!

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Keep an eye on them, especially the first time you make them though, since every oven is different. 

Allow to cool for a few minutes on the pan and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. But eat one (or 5) while they are still warm from the oven because let’s face it, that is when they are at their prime. Then share with them with a friend!

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

OMG meltey chocolate chips <3 

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