Chocolate Chip Cookies

Soft and chewy cookies studded with semisweet chocolate chips

Nothing is better than fresh baked cookies. I love to bake cookies, not only because I love eating them but because everyone loves homemade cookie. I believe it is a great way to say "I love you" to your friends and family and everyone seems to really appreciate it.

When my husband has a rough day or when he comes home after a long trip away I like to make him a special treat (I gotta give him some incentive to come home ;) ). His favorite cookies are chocolate chip, nothing fancy, just basic chocolate chip cookies. So that is what I make.

Here are some things I have learned about making great, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies.
I must mention that I did not think up all of these tricks on my own. I saw them on an episode of 'Good Eats'--on food network (love that show).

First melt the butter
Second use all brown sugar
Third use bread flour
Lastly, only bake one sheet of cookies at a time (I figured this out on my own).
Oh and do not over bake the cookies.

This last tip is a little more difficult it depends on your individual oven, and how big or small you make your cookies. I like to make my cookies small. I use a teaspoon to size them (now I have a cookie scoop it is 1 tablespoon and is the exact size I like it makes dropping cookies so much quicker I highly recommend one), and they end up about 2 inches in diameter when baked. With this size, it usually takes exactly 8 minutes to bake them perfectly (I also use good air-bake cookie sheets).

Another trick I have learned is to let the cookies cool at least 8 minutes on the pan before trying to remove them. For this, it helps to have more than one pan. I have 3. While one is in the oven baking, I am putting more cookies on another, and while the new pan of cookies is baking, the pan just pulled from the oven is cooling. It makes the process faster and easier. Trust me, I hate to have broken cookies (my husband loves it because I have a rule that he has to eat any broken cookies right away b/c it makes me mad to have a broken cookie). Making them smaller and letting them cool help prevents breakage (and my husband still gets to eat plenty of unbroken cookies).