Cookie -

1 : a small flat or slightly raised cake

2 a : an attractive woman

   b : person, ‘a tough cookie’

3 a small file or part of a file stored on a World Wide Web user's computer, created and subsequently read by a website server, and containing personal information (such as a user identification code, customized preferences, or a record of pages visited)  Merriam Webster

I like to cook.  Actually, I like to bake.  I don’t do it very often because being the only person in the house, I’d be the only one eating all the baked goods.  That’s just never a good idea.  However, once in a while, I am overcome with the need for cookies, so out comes flour, sugar, butter, etc.

OK – here is an interesting fact – one to add to your “odd info for an exotic cocktail party” file – The Chocolate Chip Cookie is the number one favorite cookie in the world.  I don’t know who asks and keeps score but that’s what I read.

Did You Know:  In 1930, Ruth and Kenneth Wakefield, purchased a house halfway between Boston and New Bedford in Massachusetts. The house, built in 1709, had once been a stopping place where travelers could rest, change horses, have a nice meal, and pay any necessary tolls for using the road. Ruth and Kenneth turned the home into a lodge, “The Toll House Inn.”  Ruth, known for her baking and dessert skills, often made a cookie dating from Colonial days – Butter Do Drop Cookies.  One version of the recipe called for Baker’s chocolate, and, finding herself without, Ruth chopped up a bar of Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate and added the tiny bits to her dough. The chocolate was supposed to melt and spread through the dough. It didn’t. That day in 1937, the history of chocolate chip cookies began.  There are other versions of this story but essentially Ruth Graves Wakefield invented the #1 favorite cookie today.  Interesting.

I’ve made a variety of Chocolate Chip Cookies over the many years, using different recipes.  Some are ok, some were terrible, but this one is the BY FAR BEST one I’ve ever had.  I actually found it in the Houston Chronicle about a bazillion years ago.

Fabulous Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ cups flour	1 large package dry instant vanilla pudding mix
1 tsp salt	1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter, softened	¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar	1 tsp vanilla
12 oz chocolate chips	12 oz toffee bits
2 large eggs	6 oz chocolate chunks

1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, pudding mix, salt and baking soda in a small bowl.  Set aside.

2 Mix butter, both sugars, and vanilla until smooth.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Stir in flour mixture a little at a time.  Stir in chocolate chips/chunks and toffee bits. 

3 Place large rounded drops of cookie dough – about ¼ cup – on cookie sheet.  Limit to two cookies per row.  Bake 8-9 minutes until just golden.  When taking cookies out of oven, bang cookie sheet on the counter a couple of times to let the air out of the cookie.  Cool on rack.

** Personal note:  I don’t use two different types of chocolate – chips and chunks.  I just use 18 oz of chips.  And, the recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate but I like milk chocolate better, so, that’s what I use.  My cookies aren’t as big – maybe 1/8 cup dough with 3-4 cookies per row.  Finally, I cooked mine 12 minutes but that may be my oven.

Take care

In some places chocolate chip cookies

are topped with chocolate sauce and eaten

with knife and fork.