The Potential Loss of An All-Time Favorite

Lately I've been working on organizing my cache of recipes (more on that to come in a later post).  I thought I had all my favorites in their respective binders, until I went in search of my tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipe.  It's an adaptation of a recipe that used to be on the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda box and I've been making it for years (like, at least 20 10, but I'm not quite ready to admit that!).  I pulled out the "Desserts" binder, flipped to the "Cookies & Bars" section and...not there.  What?  No!  Where could it be?!  E gads...disaster!!  Although I pretty much know it by heart, I wanted to have it, because you never know.  The phone might ring while I'm baking, and I'm notorious for being a poor multi-tasker when it comes to phones and cooking.

Needless to say, I did track it down, but not before realizing I better put pen to paper (or printer to paper, as the case may be) and put it in the right place.  And I might as well post it, so it's a win-win all around.

All-Time Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

Ingredients:
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 12-oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees, placing oven racks on the second and fourth levels from the bottom.  Mix sugars and eggs in mixing bowl until well blended.  Add vanilla, salt, and baking soda and mix well.  Add Butter Flavor Crisco and mix well.  Add flour, mixing until completely incorporated.  Finally add chocolate chips and mix until evenly incorporated throughout the batter.  Using a medium-size cookie scoop, place dough on cookie sheets.  Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, switching the pan from the lower rack to the upper rack of the oven halfway through the baking time.  Remove cookies when golden.  Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes on the cookie sheet to firm up, then move to a cooling rack until completely cooled.  Store in an air-tight container.   (I prefer mine frozen!)

Makes approximately 3 dozen medium-sized cookies
128 calories per cookie

Nestle used to make a caramel-milk chocolate swirl morsel that really made these cookies to die for.  Sadly, they discontinued it despite my objections.  I've yet to find a comparable substitute, but I like to make life interesting on occasion and mix in different morsels.  This time I used a cup of milk chocolate chips and a cup of Reese's peanut butter chips.  Which ever chip you choose, you can't lose!