The Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks back Cole went with his buddy to their summer home for a long weekend. I want to make something special as a thank you for letting him come along. His friend's mom said earlier that she was a fan of chocolate chips cookies.  I found this recipe for The Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies on A Pinch of Yum. I must say they were very soft and I got rave reviews from them.

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons of salted butter 

½ cup white sugar 

¼ cup packed light brown sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 egg 

1½ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda 

¼ teaspoon salt 

¾ cup chocolate chips (I used a combination of chocolate chips and white chocolate chips) 

Instructions 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Microwave the butter for about 40 seconds to just barely melt it. It shouldn't be hot ­ but it should be almost entirely in liquid form. 

2. Using a stand mixer or electric beaters, beat the butter with the sugars until creamy. Add the vanilla and the egg; beat on low speed until just incorporated ­ 10­ to 15 seconds or so (if you beat the egg for too long, the cookies will be stiff). 

3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until crumbles form. Use your hands to press the crumbles together into a dough. It should form one large ball that is easy to handle (right at the stage between "wet" dough and "dry" dough). Add the chocolate chips and incorporate with your hands. 

4. Roll the dough into 12 large balls (or 9 for HUGELY awesome cookies) and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 9­ to 11 minutes until the cookies look puffy and dry and just barely golden. (DO NOT OVERBAKE. This advice is probably written on every cookie recipe everywhere, but this is essential for keeping the cookies soft). Take them out even if they look like they're not done yet. They'll be pale and puffy. 

5. Let them cool on the pan for a good 30 minutes or so. They will sink down and turn into these dense, buttery, soft cookies that are the best in all the land. These should stay soft for many days if kept in an airtight container. 

Notes The 3 most important things about this recipe are 

1) melting the butter

2) adding enough flour

3) not baking for too long. If you find that the dough is wet and it REALLY sticks to your hands, you probably need a little more flour. This is important otherwise you'll have flat cookies. 

ALEXIS NOTE: List to her notes above I found that when I made this recipe just like she said they came out perfect!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Pizza Palooza ... Dessert PB Cookie Pizza

As my husband says why not have a restaurant that starts with dessert then let's you have dinner!  So why not start out my Pizza Palooza week of recipes with a PB Cookie Pizza I found on Urban Jane.  This was a simple one to make and was a hit with the kids!  I took a sniff and it sure did smell good (yes I'm being a good girl and sticking to my diet).

I had Reese's Piece's on hand from a previous recipe that I needed yellow candy and the only way to find them was to buy these and pick them out ... lol yes it works but hey I then had it on hand for this recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 cups all purposed flour
2 cups miniature marshmallows
2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (recipe called for 1 cup but we both used 2 cups)
1 cup Reese's pieces (or any other toppings you like)

Directions:
- in a bowl, cream butters & sugars together. Beat in egg & vanilla. Stir in flour & chocolate chips until well blended.
- spread dough onto greased pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Sprinkle with marshmallows & Reese's pieces. Bake 5-6 minutes longer or until lightly browned.
-let cool on baking sheet

Hope you enjoy this recipe!  It sure was easy to make and everyone seemed to leave with a smile.

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

St. Paddy Day ... Pot of Gold Cookies

On our last item made for our St. Patty's day celebration is the cookies I made for each of the boys room.  I found these really cool Pot of Gold Cookies on What's Cooking Love.  They were super easy to make and I think they turned out so cute!  Her recipe used a store bought cookie mix and I made my chocolate chip cookie dough and followed her recipe.

First we start with the cookies (IF you want to make cookie dough you can use the store bought mix).  I found a recipe for The BEST EVER Chocolate Chip Cookies on Savory Sweet Life.  The recipe was very simple to make.  After I made the dough I picked up from her recipe on Step 3.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER!

Author: Savory Sweet Life

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• 1½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
• ¾ tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1½ tsp. baking powder
• 2¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface.

(NOW since I was making the Pot of Gold's I ONLY made the dough, but I wanted to make sure you had the whole recipe if you want to make cookies).

Pot of Gold Cookies

1 pouch Chocolate Chip Cookie mix
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 egg
3 tablespoons peanut butter chips

10 yellow Reese's Pieces (per cookie)

(Alexis Notes: Either use Cookie Mix or Make your own.)

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Stir the chocolate chip cookie mix, butter, and egg together in a large bowl until soft dough forms. Then add the peanut butter chips and stir to combine.  

3.  Roll the dough into a rounded teaspoonful and place one ball in an ungreased muffin tin pan.  Repeat for the rest of the cookie dough balls.   Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool the cookies for 5 minutes, then gently press 10 yellow Reese's Pieces into the cup of each cookie. Cool for an additional 5 minutes then gently remove from the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack.  

(Alexis Notes: I didn't add peanut butter chips. I also used my silicone mini cupcake pan instead of the muffin tin.)

Enjoy, these are so cute and the boys loved them.  Can't wait to share with their friends.

And for the anonymous (because you don't want anyone to call you out with a real name). I'm not an idiot for saying Patty not Paddy, I know it an age old argument, I did some research and switched my post to Paddy ONLY because it tells me the Irish call it that way and I want to be respectful.  Call me an idiot all you want, but I address people with my name so they can talk with me if they would like to disagree with me!!