Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think I have mentioned that I don't like boring food.

My sister will go to a Mexican restaurant and order a cheese quesadilla. It makes me angry. I could make her that at home for like a dollar. It's a total waste of money and ordering food, in my opinion. When I order something off a menu, I think to myself, "What can I not make for myself at home?" and then I order that. So it's generally the most complex item with crazy ingredients that I wouldn't know where to buy or how to cook. 

When I cook something, I am generally drawn to recipes that have a ton of ingredients. You probably won't ever see a recipe on here that has a name like "Simple Pasta with Olive Oil". YAAAAAAAAAAAAWN.

So when I was home last weekend, I told my mom I was going to make a dessert. She said that her boyfriend wanted to make his mom's famous chocolate chip cookies. My heart sank. Chocolate chip cookies? That's the MOST boring dessert I could possible think of. I had envisioned something with four kinds of chocolate and peanut butter and mousse and crunch and food coloring and sprinkles and ganache and anything else with a ridiculously high sugar content.  Duh.

However, because I am kind and accommodating, I agreed to make them. Reluctantly. I was prepared to be extremely underwhelmed.

Now, I don't say this often but....

....I was wrong.

These cookies were awesome. Hands down, the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. My mom's boyfriend, my sister, and I were eating spoonfuls of the batter as my mom stared at us in disgust.

I think the difference might be the Crisco. I have never baked with Crisco but it seemed to make the dough lighter and creamier.  I might be making that up but I'm gonna go with it.

I do credit part of the deliciousness of these cookies to the fact that, in addition to the the amount of chocolate chips that were called for in the recipe, I dumped in a whole bag of leftover Valentine's Day M&Ms (for a double batch). Whoops.  I just couldn't leave it alone.

Oh, and I made them into an ice cream sandwich.

So delicious. And pretty. And not boring.

My sis, Kennedy, enjoying my creation.

These cookies definitely changed my mind about plain (coughBORINGcough) recipes.  Maybe a couple uncharacteristically simple recipes will make it on the blog from time to time.

 Side story:  My mom's boyfriend obviously doesn't bake often.

I told him to put parchment paper on the baking sheets. About 2 minutes into baking the first batch, I noticed that the kitchen seemed to be getting a little foggy.  I opened the oven and smoke came pouring out.  I pulled out the cookies and could not figure out what was going on.

Then I saw the wax paper on the counter. He thought that wax paper and parchment paper were the same product.

They're not.

He's lucky I like him. And that my mom paid for all of the groceries. Because he ruined 24 cookies. Unacceptable.

 

the waxy cookie remnants

You should make these. On parchment paper. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup Crisco 
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/4 cup flour 
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 bag of M&Ms

1. Combine Crisco and sugar, cream well, blend in eggs and vanilla.  
2.  Combine dry ingredients and then add to cream blend mixing well.   
3. Stir in chocolate pieces.   
4. Drop by heaping tsp. full onto cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.