{two for one} Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe literally changed my life. I always dreamed of being that kind of mom with warm chocolate chip cookies waiting for my kids when they got home from school, and I was determined that my future grand kids would beg to go to grandma's house to eat my cookies. The only problem was that I could not make chocolate chip cookies. They turned out too flat, too hard or too dense. Until my friend passed along this recipe years ago. I finally had found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe and I've never looked back. Your welcome, future grand kids. And as a side note, American chocolate chip cookies are a bit of a novelty here. I love spreading the love one moist and chewy chocolate chip cookie at a time. I feel sorta like a rockstar.

3/4 C butter, room temp
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 C brown sugar
2 1/2 C flour
1 C sugar
1 ½ C chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until smooth. Sift flour, baking soda and salt then add to creamed mixture and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips then form into balls and place 2 in apart on baking sheet. Bake for 11-12 min or until just lightly browned. They should look slightly under cooked, but take them out of the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for two minutes before putting on a cooling rack.

*Source: Jenny Kempton

The funny thing is that I had this set as a scheduled post when my sister emailed me her recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, so it's your lucky day because you get to have not one but two recipes that claim to be the perfect cookie, which is a good excuse to try them both and find out for yourself! Here's my sister's version and they look pretty delicious if I do say so myself...

I had a friend in Iowa that was a fabulous cook.  Cookies were her speciality.  She was a cookie connoisseur of sorts.  One year for Christmas she gave me a cookie cookbook she made.  That thing is tattered and stained from so much use.  I get a lovely batch of cookies each and every time!  This chocolate chip cookie recipe is the one I make the most.  It is the perfect mix of crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.  All you need is a tall glass of milk to go with it.  This recipe is versatile too.  I've substituted the chocolate chips with so many different mix-in's.  You can add any kind of chip from peanut butter to butterscotch to white chocolate.  The Heath bar bits are great as well!  One of my favorites, especially around Christmas, is the Andes mint chips.  Mint chocolate perfection, right there!  Set those out for Santa and you'll be guaranteed a spot on the nice list!  I usually double this recipe.  You can put the leftovers in a freezer bag and save for later.  Or just eat them all fresh, which is what usually happens when you have six kids around to help eat them.

3/4 cup Crisco (butter flavored is best)

3/4 C brown sugar

2 eggs

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 package chocolate chips

Mix the crisco and sugars together.  Add eggs and mix.  Add the powder, soda, salt and vanilla.  Stir. Add flour 1 cup at a time.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Place spoonfuls of dough about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Enjoy!

*source Jessica Brown