Have you checked out the Meet Marissa tab, to get to know a little more about me? If you haven’t… you should! It is what inspired this post. 🙂 I have alluded to the fact that I love chocolate chip cookies… and did you know that I quite enjoy baking, too? Another little tidbit about me… I went to culinary school for a few semesters while trying to find my true passion. I learned to make a delicious chicken beurre blanc, and I learned that I’d rather bake any day over cooking. I’ve always prided myself on having the best chocolate chip cookies (I’m not super conceited… promise! Numerous people have told me that they are awesome.), and taking a baking class while at culinary school helped me to perfect it. I asked my husband, Chad, to help me by taking shots of me making cookies… and of course, Jackson was thrilled to help out as well! I have created a little cookie monster (see below). It took a number of years, and several batches of sub par cookies, to find what makes a really awesome chocolate chip cookie! So, some photos to enjoy of our afternoon of cooking the best chocolate chip cookies ever… and then a recipe!
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Wet Ingredients
2 sticks of Fleischman’s unsalted margarine
1 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of white granulated sugar
2 egg whites
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
2 1/4 cups of unbleached flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
9 ounces of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
~ let the margarine sit out to soften, or microwave it (like I often do because I don’t have patience to let it sit out) for 20 seconds. | You just want it to easily indent when touched… if you do microwave it for too long and it melts at all… you’ll have to refrigerate the finished dough for 30 minutes to let it set again.
~ preheat the oven to 375* f
~ cream together the margarine and the sugar
~ add the egg whites and hand whip (or just mix it vigorously..lol)
~ mix in the vanilla
~ mix together all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl
~ gradually mix the dry ingredient mixture into the wet ingredient mixture until just mixed (you don’t want to over mix it because it will make your cookies chewy)
~ use a medium sized cookies scoop and place cookie dough evenly apart on a pan | I highly recommend using a light metal colored air-bake pan… it just cooks them the best
~ place pan on middle rack in oven and bake for 10 minutes
~ remove pan from oven and let cookies set on the pan for 2-3 minutes before placing on a cooling rack to cool
~ bake following pans of cookie dough for 8-9 minutes, let set and then cool
*I find it makes a significant difference if you use my specific ingredients… if you use other things, don’t get me wrong… the cookies will still be amazing! But I believe that these make the absolute best cookies. Also, try the recipe with omitting the egg whites (just use 1 and 3/4 cup of flour instead of 2 and 1/4 cups)… now you can enjoy the dough alone! The cookies will be the same, but will be more chewy than cake-like (not that they are really cake-like to begin with… but you get the idea).
Missa, I tried making your mom’s sugar cookies and frosting with almond extract, TOTAL DISASTER! Threw the whole batch of cookies away. 🙁 Is there a trick to that recipe I should know about? I was so sad! Hers were SOO good at your party! I refridgerated the dough over night, and it was still SOO sticky and soft. Cookies were literally GROSS and frosting didn’t harden, was almost egg-y!
Hmmm… I’ll message you on fb, Rach, just in case you don’t see this… but if I remember correctly the recipe calls for 4-5 cups of flour, and you should always use 5 and then still use a decent amount when rolling the dough out for cutting. That’s the only thing that I can think of that may have made them sticky, at the moment. And the frosting is super soft when you first make it and then hardens as it sets. I usually make the cookies one day and then frost them the next and then let the set for another day before serving them. The frosting will separate if you don’t use it right after making it (egg whites will be on the top) and all you have to do is mix it back in and it should be good! 🙂 I’ll probably do a post on them in the future. We always make them for Halloween! That would be a fun one to do!