Nostalgia When the School Bell Rings

One of the greatest joys of my childhood occurred when I got home from school and smelled homemade chocolate chip cookies in the oven.  My mother was not a great cook, but she knew the ins and outs of making chocolate chip cookies.

Now that school is back in session, I am reminded of those homework-filled afternoons sustained by seeing how many chocolate chip cookies I could get into my mouth at one sitting.  For some reason my mother liked making small cookies.  Seldom were they more than 2 inches across, and often they were smaller.

I never really mastered her recipe, which was basically the one on the Nestle chocolate chip package.  Maybe it’s because I always make my cookies too big.  They’ve never tasted like hers. Or maybe it’s because my cookbook co-author son, Kevin, has made it his life’s work to capture the chocolate chip cookie market. 

Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies – makes about 36 cookies (adapted from “Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!”)  

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Place one of the oven racks in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix the butter with the two sugars in a mixing bowl or food processor until well blended. 

Add the egg and vanilla and mix again. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until well blended.  Add the chocolate chips and mix thoroughly.  It may be easier to do this by hand with a spoon. 

Lightly rub 1 or 2 baking sheets with butter or use a silicone baking mat.  Drop 12 small spoonfuls of cookie mixture on each sheet, 3 cookies per row in 4 rows.  Bake each baking sheet, one at a time, for 8-10 minutes.  The cookies will be brown but not dark brown.  They will look not quite done, but by the time they look done on the top, they’ve burned on the bottom.  They will firm up as they cool. 

After you’ve removed the baked cookies from the oven, let them cool on the sheet for 3 minutes.  Then transfer them with a spatula to a cooling rack.  Repeat until all the cookies are baked.

              For more easy recipes, order "Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!"