Cookies for the Win!

The snit has broken. I went home for lunch today. Did a couple of chores, reheated some soup, and popped a couple of cookies into the oven, watched two cooking shows. Cookies into the oven during lunch, you say? See, the marvelous thing about Dorie Greenspan's recipe is that you can freeze the dough by spoonful and then bake them as needed. Isn't that brilliant??!?!?!

So. I made this dough over the weekend. We happily munched away on about half of the dough (baked to cookies first!) and I froze the rest. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to be able to make these tasty little wonders whenever I want. Bad day at work? Bake a cookie! Derrick and Meredith break up again? Bake a cookie! Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? You got it - bake a cookie! The best part is that I don't have to commit to 45 cookies all at once (because, gawd, who needs that guilt??!?!). I can just make a couple at a time, feed my internal cookie monster, and still feel good about it.

Pretty rad.


My Best Chocolate Cookies
From Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Home-Yours-Dorie-Greenspan/dp/0618443363/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201273790&sr=8-1

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 cups store-bought chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well-blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and nuts. (The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen. If you'd like, rounded tablespoonfuls of dough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when they're solid. There's no need to defrost the dough before baking-just add another minute or two to the baking time.)

Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.

Bake the cookies- one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point- for 10-12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle, and that's just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Makes about 45 cookies.