I haven’t been feeling very inspired baking-wise lately, so I was happy that a friend brought over some frozen chocolate chip cookie dough balls before we left Chicago. They were so tasty that she emailed me the recipe. She then emailed me a few more times about said cookies vs. another recipe, and sent me the delightful line: “And now I’ve sent you too many emails but cookies: serious business”

What if the general of the Confederate States of America actually transmogrified and moved to Scotland? So everyone’s been saying the Loch Ness monster, or Nessy, but really she’s a he and is a Ness Lee monster?
I baked a half batch of these a few weeks ago and dutifully melted the butter, which really does turn the cookies from a normal soft cookie to a delightful chewy cookie. But I was lazy this time and wanted to finish off my Earth Balance (from when I had a potentially vegan person over and made some awesome vegan mac and cheese) so that’s what I did, and ended up with a basic, solid chocolate chip cookie. This blog is usually pretty adventurous, but everyone needs a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe!
First, cream the butter with the sugar. I love how much brown sugar is in this recipe.

I’ve worked out a code to transmit messages via rolls and dairy products. But you can trust me with your secrets; I won’t butter a word.
Then add eggs and vanilla.
Finally you add the dry ingredients. Since I use salted butter I rarely add salt to cookies, but I am incorrect and you should add salt. It really brings out flavor! I’m just lazy (also note that I didn’t use one egg + one egg yolk, because why would I separate out one egg?)
Mix that up, and stir in the chocolate chips.
I also bought parchment paper the other day because I am not good with silpats despite my professed love for them. I made cookies on them about a year ago that tasted like dishwashing liquid because I was putting the silpats in the dishwasher. Parchment paper is so easy! (But so wasteful. But so easy! Dang it I feel bad enough for switching from cloth to disposable diapers when we moved. Now I feel guilty about parchment paper.)
To freeze cookies, just scoop them out into balls on a baking sheet and shove the whole thing in the freezer til they’re hard. Then dole them out into freezer bags, and label them. Bake for about 2 minutes longer than normal.
Puns were worse than usual this time around. But the cookies were still good!
Chocolate chip cookies, adapted from Smitten Kitchen which adapted from allrecipes
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c + 2 TB butter (1 stick + 2 TB)
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1 TB vanilla
2 eggs
2 c chocolate chips
Cream together the butter and sugars. Preheat oven to 325. Prepare a baking sheet (parchment paper or silpat or nothing).
Add in the vanilla and eggs and cream. Add the flour, and sprinkle with baking soda (this is because you are lazy like me and didn’t sift them together earlier). Mix. Add the chocolate chips and stir.
Drop by tablespoons onto your cookie sheet (I fit a dozen per sheet). Bake for ten minutes, or until the edges just start to look toasty.
hey, just saw this post! I’ve made this recipe probably a dozen times, and this is literally the first time I’ve noticed that it calls for an egg yolk. Like, when I read the caption about separating the eggs, I had no idea what you meant. I think I must just put in a single egg and they turn out fine? so yeah, option 2 I guess.