There is a funny episode of Friends where Monica is trying to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie so that one day she can be the mom who makes the worlds greatest cookie. Well, being a mom is a serious job and making an excellent chocolate chip cookie is definitely part of the gig. Lucky for me, my mom DID make the worlds greatest cookies! Chocolate Chip and Snickerdoodle! So I don't have to painstakingly find the perfect recipe like Monica. I inherited them!
First up: Snickerdoodle, pictured above. These are hands down the best snickerdoodles out there! For some reason or other, it seemed that my mom was the only one who could make them just right. My sister and I tried on occasion and the cookies would turn too flat or crispy. For this reason we believed my mother was leaving out an ingredient on the recipe intentionally so that she alone would be the master cookie maker. Well I tried my hand at them again and I mastered it. I'm not really sure what the trick was. They just turned out! I brought them to an activity for church for the 8-12 year old girls. On my way out from the activity I noticed one of the girls had taken a bite of the cookie an then thrown the rest away! This to me was beyond disturbing. I honestly was shocked. And betrayed. And if I wasn't the good person that I was I would have retrieved the cookie and made the little girl eat it. I don't know what is wrong with that kid. Anyway... I assure you that is not the typical reaction when taking one bite out of these cookies.
Giant Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ½ cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ cup flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
Directions:
In large mixing bowl with mixer at medium speed, cream butter, 1 ½ cups sugar and eggs until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture until well blended. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon in a flat open bowl. Shape dough into 2 inch balls and roll in cinnamon-sugar. Place 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Snickerdoodles will puff up at first, then flatten out to giant size during baking. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire rack.
Makes 2 dozen.
Next up: The Beloved Chocolate Chip Cookie. The bottom line is that the Chocolate Chip Cookie is like the Holy Grail of all cookies. It is everything a cookie ought to be. Crispy, chewy, doughy and of course sprinkled with rich creamy chocolate morsels. Yum! I don't care what anyone else says, Chocolate Chip Cookies really are THE cookie to master. Especially for moms. What kid could refuse? I made these as a young lass in my 4-H years and I won a blue ribbon at the fair. So here you have it, AWARD winning Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1 lb. butter or margarine
1 ½ cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
6 cups flour
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla
2 bags (4 cups) chocolate chips
Walnuts, if desired
Directions:
Cream together butter, white sugar and brown sugar.
Then add eggs, flour, salt, baking soda and vanilla. Once incorporated, add chocolate chips and walnuts.
Mix well. Put on ungreased cookie sheet with ice cream scoop. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
Yeah, that little girls reaction is not the typical. They are not super sweet cookies, though, and more cakey than the normal snickerdoodles. I have one co-worker whose mouth will water just thinking about them. That recipe came from a Ladies Home Journal magazine about 30 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe chocolate chip cookie recipe came from Sharon Boam via a ward cookbook. I had tried and tried to make chocolate chip cookies, just like Monica. These are the ticket. It took me about 13 years of marriage to get to that spot. So try them. You'll thank me later!
Oh, and a note on the snickerdoodles. This is one cookie that works a little better with margarine than butter (which is what I always prefer for baking). But you need to get good margarine, preferably marked good for baking. Some of the cheaper margarine brands have too much filler and the cookies will come out flat.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that I'm not the best cookie maker. Sometimes they turn out great and sometimes they don't for me. I think it's because I don't have the patience for making multiple batches of cookies.
ReplyDeleteI mean, you have to roll the dough into balls, put it on a cookie sheet, bake it, take them off the cookie sheet to cool, put them in a plastic container and reload the cookie sheet.
These are the best Snickerdoodles ever. I can only assume that the little girl who only had a bite had gorged herself on sweets the whole morning and simply didn't have room for more because that's the only reason for not finishing one of those cookies.
Irritating. It deleted our comments thread. I'm re-posting it.
ReplyDeleteJoey has left a new comment on your post "You aren't a real mom until you've mastered the ar...":
Yeah, that little girls reaction is not the typical. They are not super sweet cookies, though, and more cakey than the normal snickerdoodles. I have one co-worker whose mouth will water just thinking about them. That recipe came from a Ladies Home Journal magazine about 30 years ago.
The chocolate chip cookie recipe came from Sharon Boam via a ward cookbook. I had tried and tried to make chocolate chip cookies, just like Monica. These are the ticket. It took me about 13 years of marriage to get to that spot. So try them. You'll thank me later!
Joey has left a new comment on your post "You aren't a real mom until you've mastered the ar...":
Oh, and a note on the snickerdoodles. This is one cookie that works a little better with margarine than butter (which is what I always prefer for baking). But you need to get good margarine, preferably marked good for baking. Some of the cheaper margarine brands have too much filler and the cookies will come out flat.
Sarah has left a new comment on your post "You aren't a real mom until you've mastered the ar...":
I'll admit that I'm not the best cookie maker. Sometimes they turn out great and sometimes they don't for me. I think it's because I don't have the patience for making multiple batches of cookies.
I mean, you have to roll the dough into balls, put it on a cookie sheet, bake it, take them off the cookie sheet to cool, put them in a plastic container and reload the cookie sheet.
These are the best Snickerdoodles ever. I can only assume that the little girl who only had a bite had gorged herself on sweets the whole morning and simply didn't have room for more because that's the only reason for not finishing one of those cookies.
Finally, as I was looking these up to make them; I want to clarify that I use pecans in the chocolate chip cookies, not walnuts. Except now I won't be using either. I want Pete to love my cookies!
ReplyDelete