Carol L. Cain
Chocolate Chip Cookies of the Gods
From: cain@ics.uci.edu (Timothy Cain) Ingredients: 1 cup cold butter (2 sticks, do not use margarine!) 1 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda 3 cups chocolate chips (that's 3 6 oz. bags!) Directions: With an electric mixer or food processor, beat the butter into the sugars until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until just mixed. Add the flour and baking soda, and beat until well-blended. Now add the chocolate chips (stop eating them!), and stir them in with a spoon. Make cookie balls with a spoon or your fingers (I find using just your fingers is easier). The balls should be about as large around as a half-dollar (maybe a little bigger), and you should get 3 dozen of these. Now the hard part: put these balls on a tray, cover them with foil, and put them in the fridge overnight. Chilling them makes them taste so much better. If you cannot wait, do not expect cookies of the gods. To bake the cookie balls, place a dozen on a cookie tray and let it sit for 10 minutes at room temperature, while the oven preheats to 400 degrees. Bake them 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are brown but the center is still tan. Take them out of the oven and let them finish cooking on the pan for a few minutes. Devour them. I have found that the cookie balls can stay chilled for up to a week, meaning you can pull a dozen out of your fridge on a moment's notice and have hot cookies in 20 minutes. I haven't tried freezing them, but that's another possibility.