You're crazy right? .........Homemade cookies

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The other day we were at the store doing shopping and the kids were asking for cookies. Of course it was right as we hit the bakery. Just out of curiosity I checked out the prices that the store wanted for them. I about fell over, $3.99 for 12 'bakery' cookies! Of course I didn't buy them. I told the kids we'd bake up a batch later in the week and that's just what we did. Don't they look yummy? Fresh baked warm gooey chocolate chip cookies. I had to take a picture fast because they just don't last at our house. Our batch of cookies made 4 dozen cookies (That's $16 worth of store bought cookies! Maybe I should get into a new line of work...) And they only took about 30 min from start of mixing to first bite. So you want to whip up a batch today? Here is the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup butter or margarine softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-12 oz package (about 2 cups) chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarse chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375*. Combine butter and sugars in bowl. Mix well. Add in vanilla and eggs and mix until creamy. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoons full onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until edges of cookies are slightly browned. Remove from pan and cool on wire cooling racks.

Some tips I've picked up over the years: I find this goes really fast to mix up in my mixer (i have a kitchenaid mixer but any mixer will work, of course mixing with a good ole' bowl and spoon works just a well) When baking the cookies keep an eye on them, every oven bakes different. Take them out of the oven when the edges are slightly browned not the whole cookie brown to get soft chewy cookies. Remove the cookies from the cookies sheet after 2 or so minutes onto cooling racks. This way the bottoms don't turn hard from continued cooking on the hot pan. Feel free to try being creative to make them to your liking. This batch I made up I added in 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, they were delicious! I also like to change extract flavors, my favorite is almond! You can also omit the nuts, or add different kinds (peanuts, pecans, ect) or try adding M&M or white baking chips (or a mix of several) instead of the chocolate chips. Or press these into a greased 9x13 pan for cookie bars. It's great to have a recipe that you can change up for lots of yummy possibilities!

Now go bake :)