Chocolate Chip Cookie Ritual

I was really in the mood for cookies tonight and was browsing through my cookbooks and the web looking for something that caught my eye. I was thinking something no-bake and was also thinking something chocolate with chocolate and white chocolate chips. But, I couldn't find any recipes that caught my eye and didn't want to wait for the no-bakes to set so I went with chocolate chip, or as Charlie calls them choppit chip.

I have made so many chocolate chip cookies in my life that this recipe has become a bit of a ritual for me and it's so familiar that it's pretty relaxing.





I use the Tollhouse recipe, but I have a few alterations, mainly that I use almost 1 cup of brown sugar and whatever white sugar I need to equal 1.5 total cups of sugar. The extra brown sugar makes a chewier cookie. I'm also pretty liberal with my homemade vanilla.

Part of my ritual is to get all of my supplies out and my ingredients measured and ready to go before I start mixing. I'm also a big fan of washing as I go so there's less to clean up when I finish.



My favorite part of making chocolate chip cookies is testing the dough. I think I actually like the dough more than the finished product.



In high school, my then boyfriend and I would actually mix up butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and sometimes vanilla when we were craving a not-so-healthy snack. I know - gross. If I could only eat that way today and be as thin as I was then! *sigh* :)



Now, I love my KitchenAid mixer, especially when I'm making multiple cookies or desserts at the same time, but I will not use it for my chocolate chip cookies. I feel it changes the texture too much and they don't bake the way I like them to when I use a mixer. So, I get a nice arm workout mixing the dough.



My air bake pans don't hold as many cookies as a normal pan does, but I love them. I can actually take the cookies out of the oven a little before I normally would and they'll continue cooking on the pan. I also love, love, love my cookie scoop!



A somewhat recent part of my routine includes making a few chipless chocolate chip cookies before the actual chocolate chips go into the dough. My hubby and my step dad are both fans of the cookies minus the chips. Although my step dad rarely gets any of my cookies because our family gobbles them up so quickly, I like to make a few chipless cookies for Chris. There are usually some left as I get towards the end of the batter, but to suck up a bit, I tend to make 3 or 4 in my first batch. ;)





Charlie enjoyed his cookie and milk (even though he didn't eat his dinner!)



and I definitely got rid of my craving although I think I actually had a little too much of the raw dough! Tonight's cookies were a bit darker and spread a bit more than normal, but they certainly were tasty.