WOW! Thank you fellow STEEMERS for your upvotes and your encouraging words! It tells me in a wonderfully quantifiable way that
my previous posts here, here and here have met a need or at least not been a complete waste of your time and that makes me really happy. My plan is to take what I've earned and reinvest it in our Steemit community.
I thought that before I detailed the instructions for my all-time favourite cookies, I'd tell you a bit more about myself, and how and when I heard about Steemit.
It all starts with my Bitcoin romance. I know that there are more male Steemers than female Steemers out there, even, perhaps, in the Recipes category, but guys, don't stop reading now. I promise you, this won't get ridiculous. After all, I am interested in cryptocurrency.
I was single, working and doing pretty much whatever I prioritized as important. That included having some time to read magazine articles. I had a subscription to Wired and I read an article about cryptocurrency and something called Bitcoin. I thought the idea was pretty cool but soon forgot about it. Several years later, through mutual friends, I was introduced to a guy, called C. Not too long into our new relationship, he discovered I knew what Bitcoin was. He had preempted most of us in his knowledge, adoption and subsequent near obsession of Bitcoin, having read about it in a little known alternative financial enewsletter he subscribes to. I'll leave the rest of his story for him to tell. So, we found other things we had in common, and a year later we got married. It's been the right kind of love story -- measured, honest and centred in reality. As an aside, one of C's other passions is European cars, on which he's written several excellent posts here, and here.
Fast forward to a couple months ago when, during his daily watching and research of crypto, he came across Steemit.
Its value was growing exponentially. He mentioned it to me a couple times in passing, and then, finally, suggested I write a blog. He's said to me that what seems to be a real indication that an idea will succeed is when people hear about an idea, they get so excited about it that they invest their own time and money to build infrastructure and essentially, help the idea to really flourish: new associated tools and supports, a ton of word-of-mouth advertising to their own circles of influence, and deep, passionate engagement. In truth, that's why the world of cryptocurrency is so fascinating to watch: it's a fresh and better way of thinking about living in community and it respects the individual, his abilities, and the contributions we can all make.
But now, on to the lighter side of life: eating sweets.
It took me 10 minutes to put together this cookie dough. That's it. And the results cannot be beat. Seriously. I have never come across a better chocolate chip cookie. The secret, of course, is butter and more butter.
I don't think good baking and cooking is ever about looking for ways to lighten up. Light cream. Meh. Sugar substitutes. Yuk. And heaven forbid I even mention margarine.
No, these cookies are all good, hearty stuff, to ensure that incredible crisp edge and the melt-in-your-mouth buttery centre, so smooth, with hits of slightly bitter chocolate to counter all the sweet.
I've shared this recipe countless times, and we make it a lot around our house. It's a great dough to just keep in the fridge and eat raw, or, to bake a dozen cookies at a time when you need them, so you're always eating incredibly fresh cookies.
Here's what you need:
1 baking sheet (can be metal or I use a Pampered Chef tray for this and love it because things just don't burn)
16 tablespoons (2 sticks or 1/2 pound) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
Put the butter in your favourite large pot to melt over medium low heat. You can chop it up a bit before putting it in the pot, if you like.
While your butter melts, measure out and mix the flour and baking soda in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
Quickly mix the white sugar, brown sugar and salt in another medium bowl.
Then, loosely whisk the 2 eggs in a small bowl and add the vanilla.
Now, once the butter has melted, move your pot off the burner. Stir in the sugar mixture until completely combined.
Pour the egg mixture into the pot now, and stir to combine well.
Finally, add the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until nicely mixed.
Let your dough cool for about 45 minutes (test that it's cool before moving ahead) and then add your chocolate chips. Adding them too soon will make a melted runny mess of your chocolate. (We live in Canada and so in the Winter, I just move my pot to the outdoors with the lid on and let it sit for about 20 minutes and the dough is perfectly cooled -- Winter can be a wonderful sous chef!)
Now, let you dough sit for about 30 minutes again, in the fridge.
While your dough is sitting, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Your oven rack should be in the centre position.
With a tablespoon, carve out heaping spoonfuls and place on your cookie sheet. 12 cookies should fit nicely on a sheet.
Bake for 11 minutes, but stay close to the oven and check on your cookies as the timer winds down. They should be golden brown on the edges, a little lighter in the centre but better to take them out earlier than later as they'll continue to cook a bit on the cookie tray.
Let cool for 10 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack, or consuming them straight away.
Enjoy!