Here’s my recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies—it’s the only one I’ve used since 1981!  I haven’t even looked at another chocolate chip cookie recipe since then 🙂

This recipe makes a straight-up chocolate chip cookie; nothing fancy, just pure goodness. The ingredients are butter, sugar, chocolate, and flour with a leavening agent and some eggs thrown in. No spices. The cookie is not cakey.  It’s not crisp. It’s slightly crunchy around the edges, slightly chewy in the middle, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  

This recipe doesn’t fool around either—you start with a pound of butter and end up with about six dozen good-sized cookies! Thank goodness they freeze well 🙂 

Polly’s One & Only Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

See the variations below

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb. salted butter, room temperature—there’s no other salt in the recipe, so don’t use unsalted butter
• 1½ cups white sugar
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
• 6 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 12 oz./about 2 cups of chocolate chips—semi-sweet is usual, but some prefer milk chocolate, or a combination
• 2 cups chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl, and stir with a whisk to aerate; set aside.
3. In another bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds, add in white sugar and beat for 2 minutes, then add in brown sugar and beat for 3 additional minutes or until light and fluffy. 
4. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Gradually add in flour mixture to creamed egg-butter mixture. 
6. Once the flour has been incorporated, stir in 12 oz. (about 2 cups) chocolate chips and 2 cups of chopped nuts. If omitting the nuts, OK to increase chocolate chips up to 4 cups.
7. Scoop about 1 Tablespoon of dough for each cookie and place onto ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheets—for a more refined looking cookie, roll the balls and then flatten slightly with the heel of your palm. 
8. Bake in 350° oven for 10-12 minutes—I bake mine, in my current oven, for 11 minutes, which means I take them out of the oven when they still look a smidgen, and I mean a smidgen, undercooked.  Cookies firm up on cooling. 
9. Cool on trays for a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Makes about 6 dozen good sized cookies.

Chocolate Raisin Cookies I love chocolate covered raisins, and Chocolate Raisin Cookies are one of my all-time favorites—just omit the nuts, and use 3 cups chocolate chips and 3 cups raisins. YUM!

Mixed Chip Cookies My daughter Abby uses 1 cup butterscotch chips, 1 cup white chocolate chips, 1 cup milk chocolate chips, and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips—in high school, she was famous for her chocolate chip cookies 🙂 She rolls the cookies in nice neat balls, flattens them, and then tops them with one of each kind of chip. I don’t like butterscotch chips, I think they overpower everything and taste like chemicals. I prefer milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips, and I cut each ingredient down to 2/3 or ½ cups. I like more cookie than the chips!

M&M Cookies Mix in 2-3 cups of the chocolate chips, roll dough into balls, flatten a bit, then press 3-5 M&Ms (depending on the size of the ball) into the top of each cookie.  The M&Ms can be color coordinated to the holiday—red and green M&Ms for Christmas; pink, red and white for Valentine’s Day; orange, purple and black for Halloween; pastels for Easter 🙂

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies For Christmas, of course! In place of nuts stir in 2 cups coarsely crushed candy canes with the 2 cups of chocolate chips. Be sure to bake on parchment covered cookie sheets so they don’t become glued to the pan!

Caffeine Charged Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies To the flour mixture add in ¼ cup finely ground coffee plus 1 Tablespoon Espresso Powder. Stir in 12oz. of dried tart cherries with12oz. of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips.

Thanks for stopping by!  What variation is calling out to you?