INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter,
granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl. Add
eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat
in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded
tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
BAKE in preheated 375-degree [Fahrenheit] oven for 9 to 11 minutes or
until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to
cool completely.
The real, the original, the authentic Nestle Toll House
PAN COOKIE VARIATION: PREPARE dough as above. Spread into greased
15"x10" jelly-roll pan. Bake in preheated 375-degree [Fahrenheit]
oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire
rack.
FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING (>5,200 feet): INCREASE flour to 2 1/2 cups;
add 2 teaspoonfuls water with flour; reduce both granulated sugar and
brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, drop
cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookies for 17 to 19 minutes.
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Secrets of really good chocolate chip cookies
If you follow the recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House Morsels
[tm] bag, you can't go too far wrong. However, I advise a few minor
modifications and refinements.
First, always use real butter. Don't let anyone convince you that
butter vs. margarine doesn't make any difference. It does.
Second, TRIPLE the amount of vanilla extract recommended. This means
to use a tablespoon where a teaspoon is specified. Also, always use
real vanilla extract and not "vanillin," which is bogus, although
cheaper, and sold next to the genuine article in many grocery stores.
Feh.
Third, add a little milk, maybe just a tablespoon or two, when you are
mixing the dough. This will make it less stiff and the cookies will
be less hard and crunchy when they are done. If you do this, though,
make sure the dough is nice and cold as you drop it onto the cookie
sheet, and also make sure the cookie sheet is room temperature or
cooler when you put the dough on it and put it into the oven. If the
dough melts around the edges before it starts to bake, sometimes the
edges will burn or get too brown.
Fourth, if you like, try leaving out part of the sugar. I find
sometimes that these cookies are easier to take if even 1/8 cup (two
tablespoons) of the sugar (white or brown) is omitted. Don't leave
out more than that though.
If you like, try adding a 10 ounce bag of Reese's peanut butter chips,
along with the chocolate chips. This makes a great cookie, but if you
do this it is probably best to omit the nuts. Or, try adding a bag of
butterscotch chips and substituting oatmeal for the nuts.
You can also experiment with untraditional mixes of white and brown
sugar until you achieve the version you like best. In addition,
although I have not yet tried this myself, I am told that it is
possible to substitute honey on a one-to-one basis for the brown
sugar, resulting in nice chewy cookies with a longer shelf life.
The nuts are optional. Many people prefer chocolate chip cookies
without nuts. Alternatively, you can try adding oatmeal (even if you
don't add butterscotch chips) in the same volume as the nuts called
for by the recipe (but if you do this, be sure to add more liquid).
My friend Susan says that she doesn't bother adding more liquid and
her cookies turn out fine, but I prefer always to add that extra
tablespoon or two of milk. Also, if you add the Reese's peanut butter
morsels as discussed above, they melt and create some additional
moistness in the cookies.
The morsels don't have to be Nestle. However, in my experience Nestle
morsels do melt in a most satisfactory way during the baking process.
Ghirardelli and Guittard morsels are very good. I also like the
Hershey mini-morsels for this.
The morsels MUST, however, be semisweet (i.e. dark) chocolate. Milk
chocolate morsels, which are sold in similar bags to the
undiscerning, are massively too sweet to put into these cookies.
continued in part 2

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