Alice's Chocolate Chip Cookies

David sent me this recipe for posting with the following explanation:

"I've been on a quest to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and I think I've found my favorite and wanted to share it on the recipe site. Two thoughts as I've made this a few times 1) follow the directions as closely as possible. It makes a huge difference what order the ingredients are put in and how. 2) refrigerate the dough. The difference is amazing when you do this."

Makes approx. 45-48 cookies using a sm-med 2tbl. cookie scoop

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt. *Please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips. *I realized grocery stores sell bags of chocolate chips in 12 oz bags but this recipe really needs every last chip. Otherwise you’ll get cookies with only a few chips in each one and this recipe requires lots of chocolate to bulk the cookie up. You’ll need about 1 1/2 bags.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

*Troubleshooting*

-If your cookies are coming out flat and not like the pictures there are probably 3 reasons for this.

#1) Baking powder and Baking soda is old. If your baking powder and soda is older than 1 year and has not been in a sealed (preferably air tight) container, it has lost some of it rising qualities.

#2) Creaming. It is not enough to just cream the butter and sugars until it has come together. This recipe requires you to beat it with a mixer for 3 minutes until the texture of the butter and sugar turns to light and fluffy-just like the picture.

#3) Flour. Flour should be weighed. This can make or break the recipe because just scooping flour into a measuring cup will never yield ideal or consistent results.

Sugar Cookies

¾ c. butter
¾ c. shortening
1 ½ c. sugar
4 eggs
5 ¼ c. flour
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. cream of tartar
2 ¼ tsp. vanilla

Cream together butter, shortening, and sugar. Add eggs and blend well. Add flour mixture gradually to cream mixture and mix together. Add vanilla. Chill dough for a couple hours. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for 7-10 minutes.

Frosting:
½ cube margarine
Milk
Powdered sugar
Vanilla

Peanut Butter Fingers

¾ cup margarine or butter
½ cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 egg
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
¾ tsp. soda
¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups rolled oats

Spread onto cookie sheet. Bake @ 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Let cool. Spread a thin layer of peanut butter on top. Top off with a layer of chocolate frosting.


Chocolate Frosting:
6 T. melted margarine or butter
1/3 cup milk heated in microwave with margarine
3 cups powdered sugar (Mom adds extra to thicken frosting)
½ cup cocoa (Mom uses a scant 1/3 cup)

Mix together powdered sugar and cocoa. Add other ingredients.

Banana Cookies

2 ½ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup ripe mashed bananas

Mix dry ingredients. Cream sugar and shortening, add whole eggs 1 at a time. Mix in the other crap. Ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.