Can there be much goodness in this world without chocolate chip cookies?
Good food brings people together! And there's nothing like a good chocolate chip cookie recipe to keep those people coming back for more.
So let's keep it short and sweet and get right to the recipe! I've literally made THOUSANDS of these over the years, and my family never tires of them.
Britt's Chocolate Chip Cookies
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
3 sticks (1½ cups) salted butter, room temperature
1 cup white, granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 bag (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips (Hershey's are my favorite)
Preheat oven to 375º.
Dry ingredients. In a medium mixing bowl, stir flour, baking soda, and salt together; set aside.
Wet ingredients. In a separate, large mixing bowl, cream butter, white sugar, and brown sugar together (I like using a hand mixer, but you can do it in a stand mixer or by hand). Then add eggs and vanilla to butter mixture and mix until creamy and well combined.
Combine. Slowly add dry mixture into the wet mixture until some delicious, tan cookie dough forms. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all that goodness is incorporated into the dough. (At this point, try to roll a ball of dough in your hands; if it sticks more to your hands than to itself, add a bit more flour. It should be sticky, but not gooey.) Once the dough is done, mix in the chocolate chips!
Optional: You can refrigerate the dough for up to three days if you've wrapped it up nice and tight with some plastic wrap. You'll want to set refrigerated dough out on the counter for about an hour before you attempt to scoop and bake them.
And although I've never frozen my cookie dough, I'm sure you could scoop it into dough balls and freeze them for up to a month or two!
Scoop. I like using a cookie scoop so my cookies are more uniform in size—you can use different size scoops (just keep in mind that bigger scoops make bigger cookies that need more baking time in the oven)—or you can just roll up the cookie dough balls with your hands. My cookie scoops are about the size of a golf ball, and I place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake. Watch for nice, golden brown edges before you remove them from the oven, which usually takes between 8 and 12 minutes depending on the size of your cookies.
Yield. This recipe makes about 7 dozen 2" cookies. They taste fresh for the first three days, but they also freeze well for months after baking. Enjoy!