You know how some people are like, "I have The Best Recipe for chocolate chip cookies and no one else's can compare!"? Yeah, that's not me. The one thing I actively try to avoid baking is chocolate chip cookies. Because there's a standard for them and anything deviating from that standard just usually isn't as good. Honestly {and this is probably sacrilege}, my favorite chocolate chip cookies are the kind that Safeway sells for like, five bucks for a box of fifty in their bakery section. How dare you, Sam?!? I know, I know...
However, when figuring out which cookies to make for my last day at the two OT places I volunteered with, I knew I couldn't make the flourless peanut butter cookies {because PEANUT BUTTER and I don't know if anyone's deathly allergic to peanuts at either place... let's not send anyone into anaphylactic shock as my last impression, yeah?} and I didn't want to transport, like, sixty of my usual black-bottomed cupcakes.
Ree Drummond's Basic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe looked pretty straightforward and doable. Then again, one of the reasons she's my go-to girl when I need a recipe are those two adjectives exactly. So.
Here's what I thought:
+ Not bad, not bad. Again, I'm not the biggest fan of baking my own chocolate chip cookies and after trying these when they came out of the oven, I was like, "eh. they work," which isn't the SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC response one might hope for. Both the madre and I liked the Brown Sugar Oatmeal cookies better {recap/thoughts here}. But yes, these work if you NEED chocolate chip.
+ They don't flatten out very much. So they're pretty cake-y on the inside and rather compact on the outside. I'm not sure if semi-flattening them before putting them in the oven would've helped {because they might have spread out a bit more and been a bit thinner}. Maybe next time I'll try that.
+ I got various reactions from people after their first bite-- Mom asked if there was peanut butter in them, one of the OTs asked if I added caramel or sea salt. Apparently the semi-secret ingredient of instant coffee granules that Ree adds to her basic cookies throws people because they know they've had that mysterious taste before, but they can't place it.
+ Used all butter, all semi-sweet chocolate chips, and didn't add the optional flax seed. Suggested bake time is about right.
+ If you have any dough left over {or you're a super fan of cookie dough-- which I wasn't into until I finally tried it midway through college and was like, "WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!?"}, it tastes amazing refrigerated. Like... ermagherd. Yes.
Conclusion: If I HAVE to bake homemade chocolate chip cookies for some reason, this recipe works. It isn't complicated, has normal people ingredients, and the semi-secret ingredient of instant coffee granules adds a bit more oomph than if they were plain chocolate chip cookies. However, if I have the option of bringing or feeding people a different type of baked good, I probably will. Chocolate chip isn't really my forte/wheelhouse/whathaveyou.
+ They don't flatten out very much. So they're pretty cake-y on the inside and rather compact on the outside. I'm not sure if semi-flattening them before putting them in the oven would've helped {because they might have spread out a bit more and been a bit thinner}. Maybe next time I'll try that.
+ I got various reactions from people after their first bite-- Mom asked if there was peanut butter in them, one of the OTs asked if I added caramel or sea salt. Apparently the semi-secret ingredient of instant coffee granules that Ree adds to her basic cookies throws people because they know they've had that mysterious taste before, but they can't place it.
+ Used all butter, all semi-sweet chocolate chips, and didn't add the optional flax seed. Suggested bake time is about right.
+ If you have any dough left over {or you're a super fan of cookie dough-- which I wasn't into until I finally tried it midway through college and was like, "WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!?"}, it tastes amazing refrigerated. Like... ermagherd. Yes.
Conclusion: If I HAVE to bake homemade chocolate chip cookies for some reason, this recipe works. It isn't complicated, has normal people ingredients, and the semi-secret ingredient of instant coffee granules adds a bit more oomph than if they were plain chocolate chip cookies. However, if I have the option of bringing or feeding people a different type of baked good, I probably will. Chocolate chip isn't really my forte/wheelhouse/whathaveyou.
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Baked Good #5 for The 23 List.
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