Including the original Toll House and the $250.00 chocolate chip cookie recipes.
As cookie lovers, you and I have read or heard about what happened at the Toll House Inn around 1930. The innkeeper, Ruth Wakerfield, cut up a bar of semisweet chocolate and hurriedly added it to her cookie dough. She hoped that the chocolate pieces would melt completely as the cookies baked.
As it turned out, the chocolate pieces kept their shapes, and the rest is history…
Pleasant history should have many opportunities to repeat itself. In that spirit, I am pleased to share with you my collection of easy chocolate chip cookie recipes, starting with the following:
These cookies have amazingly unbelievable texture and taste. They are crisp, crunchy, loaded with chunks of milk chocolate and plenty of peanuts. They also travel very well.
You can use any proportion of peanuts and chocolate chips as long as the total equals 3 cups.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Process oatmeal and sugars (both brown and granulated) for about 3 minutes or until finely ground and powdery.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.
Cream butter until smooth and light in color. Mix in peanut butter and corn syrup.
Add oatmeal-sugar mixture and mix for 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
Incorporate the dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Gently fold in chocolate chips and peanuts.
Form dough into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets, spacing about 3" apart. Then flatten slightly to about ½ inch in thickness.
Bake for 10 minutes or until edges begin to turn golden brown. Cool cookies on baking sheets for about 2 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.
This chocolate chip cookie recipe yields about 4 dozen 3" cookies. Store them in air tight containers for up to 1 week. You can also freeze them.
The first time I baked these chocolate chip cookies, I could not stop myself from munching on them all day. They are so addictive, and it is not because of the rum, mind you! :-)
The best part about this chocolate chip cookie recipe is that you can freeze the dough for up to a month without losing its quality. What a relief and time saving it must be if you are coordinating a gathering.
I like to use quality dark rum because it is less sweet and has a stronger flavor than light rum. I also soak raisins in rum for at least 6 hours before attempting to put all other ingredients together. Without further ado, here are the ingredients.
To get even at Neiman-Marcus, a lady decided to spread around this chocolate chip cookie recipe. The store had deliberately charged her $250.00 for it instead of $2.50 as she thought.
I baked these cookies and they were indeed delicious. However, I used ½ cup of light brown sugar instead of ¾ cup, and ¼ cup of granulated sugar instead of ½ cup.
By the way, Neiman-Marcus assured that the store had never charged anyone for a recipe. Here is the unaltered version.
Ruth Wakerfield kept her chocolate chip cookie dough cool before putting it in the oven. I tried refrigerating the dough for about 30 minutes before shaping and baking it. The cookies turned out great and had a much nicer golden brown color.
I have read that Mrs. Fields also refrigerates her chocolate cookie dough before shaping and baking it. Just make sure that the dough does not become too hard.
You can reheat all these chocolate chip cookies before serving because they are best when freshly made and still warm. Reheat them in a preheated 325 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 2 or 3 minutes, or just until the chocolate softens.
I will be adding more chocolate chip cookie recipes as we go along. Meanwhile, please complete the following form to share your cookie recipes.