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The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

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The best chocolate chip cookie recipe

Are you stumped about what to bring to the Memorial Day barbecues you’ve been invited to? We have just the thing: The best chocolate chip recipe ever — it makes about six dozen soft and chewy cookies.

Ingredients

1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 cups semi of sweet chocolate chips
1 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Directions: The Best Chocolate Cookie Recipe

1. Heat oven to 375° F.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until creamy.
3. Add in eggs then beat well.
4. Mix together all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt — beating it all well.
5. Mix in chocolate chips and nuts.
6. Chill the cookie batter in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or for better results, chill it overnight.
7. Scoop up a rounded teaspoon of cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet — you could also use an ice cream scooper if you have one. Repeat this process until you fill up the sheets. Remember to leave enough space between cookies so they don’t accidentally cook together.
8. If desired, you can press in a few chocolate chips on top of the dough.
9. Bake for eight to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
10. Let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes on cookie sheet.
11. Use a spatula to transfer them from the cookie sheet to a wire rack and let them cool completely.

Quick tip: Chilling the cookie dough at least 30 minutes or overnight before baking makes it chewy, creates more texture, concentrates the flavor and reduces the degree to which each cookie spreads out on the sheet. It does make all the difference.

Readers, please let us know what you think of this recipe — tell us about your experience with baking the cookies by posting about it in the comments section beneath this post.

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If you enjoyed this recipe, you might like these other food-related articles in our archives:

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Recipe: Yummy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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Sweet yet kind of healthy at the same time, homemade oatmeal raisin cookies always taste better than anything you might buy in the store. Most of the ingredients might already be in your pantry — the following recipe makes four dozen cookies and takes less than half an hour from start to finish.

Ingredients

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup raisins
Cooking spray or a little extra oil for greasing

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray or brush the sheet with some extra oil.
3. Put flour in a mixing bowl; sift the baking powder, salt, and baking soda onto the flour.
4. Pour vegetable oil in a separate mixing bowl then add brown sugar. Mix for two to three minutes with an electric hand mixer on medium speed.
5. Add one egg, then continue beating for two to three minutes.
6. Re-sift entire flour mixture, then fold into egg mixture with rubber spatula.
7. Add vanilla extract and stir well.
8. Add the remaining egg and beat well with the hand mixer for about two minutes.
8. Add in oats; fold in completely with a spatula, then add the raisins and fold until mixture is incorporated.
8. Drop batter by teaspoons onto cookie sheet(s).
9. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
10. Serve warm or you can cool it down and store in an air-tight cookie jar for about a week.

Quick tips: Quick-cooking and old-fashioned rolled oats are interchangeable unless the recipe calls for a specific type. Never use instant oatmeal, however. This product is not the same as quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats and should not be used for baking — you will get gummy or mushy results.

You can also swap the raisins with chocolate chips — especially because this recipe doesn’t have cinnamon in it so there wouldn’t be a weird taste if you swap in this ingredient.

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If you enjoyed this recipe, you might like these other food-related articles in our archives.

Readers, if our articles make you want to try your hand at blogging yourself, we have good news for you: You can do exactly that right here on Saving Advice. Just click here to get started.

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Easy and Cheap Money Saving Recipes

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I thought since the holidays are fast approaching that I would share a few, very easy recipes that are also cost effective. My favorite quick and easy cookie recipe is especially suited to letting the kids help.

As a person with several years of baking experience, I want to first recommend using good quality ingredients. Use real butter and real Vanilla extract. Artificial vanilla flavoring just does not have the same taste as the real thing. For general baking I use Watkins Pure Vanilla Extract.

Our first recipe is for basic Cake Mix Cookies. It contains only five ingredients.

Cake mix
2 eggs

Quick Gifts to Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

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“Silver Bells” and “Silver and Gold”, some budgets just don’t allow a gift to all who deserve something for the holidays. You know how hungry animals in cartoons see our hero as a roast bird or some other tasty morsel? Throw open your pantry and see a stack full of sparkling gifts in tidy bows, or waltz through the grocery store amidst rows and rows of dangling gift tags and flowing ribbons. Eating increases endorphins, but besides the lovey-dovey biological effects, food gifts demonstrate a touch of handmade individuality and tugs the heartstrings of the other kind of consumer within each of us. I consulted my shelves, cookbooks, and home living magazines and brainstormed 15 practical and yummy gifts to share (or not) for the holidays.

You can pack up a gift kit using an empty sauce jar, tea or chocolate tin, or potato sack:

1. Measure all the dry ingredients for a batch of cookies, layering them neatly in a clear jar with the remaining bits of the recipe hung from the collar

2. Bundle chocolate bars, graham crackers, and marshmallows with a skewer and unscented tea-lights for making s’mores indoors

3. Shake up a cocktail of dried rice and a variety of spice, with a serving suggestion for meat or fish

4. Assemble a single-serving collection of gourmet teas, coffees, and chocolates with a striking mug

With a bit of festive plastic wraps and accessories, you might prefer some ready-to-eat gifts:

5. Bake some delectable and forgotten cookie recipes from the dustier corner of your cookbook shelf

6. Dip some long-handled spoons into a variety of chocolates and dust with some crushed candy cane pieces

7. Roll up some cheese balls and package with dainty crackers

8. Submerge an impaled apple into sweet candy or caramel

9. Melt some chocolate into a muffin cup and add a dollop of natural peanut butter for a homemade twist on a favorite candy

A bit of time and you can whip up some food crafts, the kind that are good enough to eat, but too cute to disassemble–almost.

10. Skewer up some marshmallow men using pretzel sticks

11. Fashion a tasty Hansel and Gretel house from gingerbread and other edible components

12. Dehydrate small donut-shaped slices of fruits and string with some popcorn on food-grade string for a decorative garland or wreath.

13. Adhere wrapped miniature chocolates with a low-temp glue gun into a variety of vehicles.

14. Animate un-shelled nuts into avid winter sportsmen

But for all the wonderful things your recipients can eat today, you can always consider getting them food to last all year.

15. Order “food-of-the-month” that is most appropriate for your budget and your friends

Incredible eats can be great gifts, and easy for an already wall-to-wall budget. You don’t have to spend much to make them, and you may be able to use what you already have. They’re gifts of time and thoughtfulness, of basic simplicity, and of instant gratification. They’re perfect for the season.

Image courtesy of Patrick Q