January 16, 2014

Moist Chocolate Chip Cookies

Around the holidays, you ate so many treats & sweets you swore you would never eat another cookie ever again. But now it's the middle of January, and you're just craving a little something.
Wait...is that just me?

Well, my motivation was two fold: I wanted to satisfy that sweet tooth and I needed another excuse to use my new mixer!
So I will share this recipe for the BEST chocolate chip cookies (and the ingredient that keeps them so moist!)

What You'll Need
{6 dozen}

4 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 Cups butter, softened
1 1/2 Cups packed brown sugar
1/2 Cup white sugar
2 packages (3.4oz.) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 Cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 Cups chopped walnuts (optional)

What You'll Do

1) Preheat oven to 350F.

2) Sift together flour and baking soda; set aside.

3) In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar & white sugar. Beat in instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in eggs and vanilla.

4) Blend in flour mixture, then stir in chocolate chips (and nuts).

5) Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake 9-12 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.

**Tips:
~Start timer at 9 minutes and check cookies every 30 seconds. My perfect cookie was 10 minutes exactly. As soon as edges are brown, take them out!
~When you first remove from oven, they will look puffy and not quite done. Give them a minute and they will flatten as they cool. Then transfer to cooling rack.
~Chill dough between batches.
~Cool cookie sheet between batches by running under cool water.