Here’s the story with these cookies:

I bake once a year during the holiday season. I don’t know if I’m overcome with some holiday spirit joy magic or what, but the need to make sugary goodness for others becomes real. I wanted to make cookies for my friends and family but I didn’t want to put in a bunch of work that I didn’t have time for. So I went to the store and purchased some chocolate chip cookie premix thinking that I’d save myself time and energy AND I’d get delicious cookies out of it. WRONG. I burned them. They were terrible. It was an embarrassing moment for all involved. I was so frustrated with the gross batch of pre-mixed cookie garbage I created that I had to redeem myself by making homemade cookies to prove to the world that I could, in fact, be a good baker.

So when I went home over the holidays, I found the old family cookbook that’s been in my kitchen cabinet since before dinosaurs roamed the earth and looked up the recipe that would save my reputation. In faded ink it read:

1 ½ cups softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
3 1/3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons salt
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy
2. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well
3. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into creamed mixture
4. Stir in chips
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned
7. Let cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan

 

A bit of knowledge about this recipe should you try it:

You’re going to have SO. MANY. COOKIES.

I’m estimating here, but by the time you’re finished baking, you’re probably going to have somewhere around… 300,000 cookies. Probably. So be ready.

I’m totally kidding, this recipe yields about 8 dozen cookies in reality, but it definitely feels more like 300,000.

 

Now, this is not my first rodeo with this recipe, so it was a successful endeavor. Therefore, telling you the story of how they were made isn’t worth telling. However, I discovered one key fact about myself during this little event:

I REALLY hate baking.

When you’re creaming the butter, sugar and brown sugar together by hand with old, lumpy brown sugar, you’d hate baking too. I had to blare happy music to remind myself that I’m making these cookies for other people and cookies taste better when you put love into them, not bitter hatred and spite. And that was only during the first step of making this redemption batch! Imagine going through the rest of the cookie making process hating every step along the way! It wasn’t fun.

Long story short: I will not be making cookies until next holiday season when I forget what I learned this year. But I have been redeemed for now, so that’s all that matters.

 

Until next time,

Dana