Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been a bit off this past week, with a cold and a bad case of laryngitis.  That's my excuse for not remembering to take step-by-step photos of my chocolate chip cookie baking this evening, so you'll get partial step-by-step directions and I have every confidence that your cookies will turn out fantastic anyway. 

I can't seem to find an airbake cookie sheet that will fit in my boat oven, so I use a Poor Man's Airbake - Take 5 or 6 layers of aluminum foil stacked together and crumple them slightly.  Fit the crumpled layer on your cookie sheet and then top it with parchment paper. I still have to start with the cookie sheet on the bottom rack and then halfway through the time I move it to the top rack.  For more oven information you can see my Oven Basics post.   Like many of my recipes, these are very versatile and totally forgiving so experiment away! You can interchange the flours, or chips, replace part or all of the shortening with butter or peanut butter, add nuts or raisins, or even cranberries and almonds.

Ingredients:

2/3 C butter
2/3 C shortening (or replace all or part with butter or peanut butter)
2 eggs
1 C brown sugar packed
1 C white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 C flour (white or whole wheat or any mixture of the two)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12 oz package of dark chocolate chips (or milk chocolate if you must) or half peanut butter chips
Nuts if you want them

 Cream butter, shortening eggs, vanilla and sugars together till light and creamy. Stir together flour, soda and salt in separate bowl and then add to creamed mixture, blending just till dry ingredients are incorporated.  Add chocolate chips and stir till blended in. Don't overmix these.  Roll spoonfuls of dough into balls and place on cookie sheet prepared as above. 

Bake 10-15 minutes, rotating as necessary.  Time is impossible to dictate in boat ovens because every single one is different and you have to get to know your own.  My oven tends to run 25° cool and I absolutely have to rotate pans around to get even cooking.

It's 27° outside headed for 17° tonight, there's snow on the docks and the wind is howling at 25 gusting to 30, but inside my boat it's warm (thanks to the marvel of shore power), cozy, and the smell of melting Ghirardelli is wafting around.  It just doesn't get a whole lot better than this in Illinois in February.