Today was not a good day.  I don’t want to go into it, but I am feeling sad.  When I feel sad I find that doing something for someone else makes me feel better.  So, this afternoon I made Chocolate Chip Cookies for my friend.

Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies.  It must be the most popular cookie in this country.  When I was in high school, we had an exchange student from Italy staying with us for a few weeks.  The day before she left, the two of us made chocolate chip cookies.  She was not familiar with them, but boy did she like them.  I gave her a shoe box full to take with her on her next stop.

Today, I made Dorie Greenspan’s cookies from Baking from My Home to Yours.  I have made this recipe before and it is good.  I used Ghiradelli Double Chocolate chips and pecans.  This is my first time using this chip.  They are a bittersweet chocolate and larger than most chips.

The recipe says it makes 2 dozen cookies, but I got 3 dozen out of it.  When they cooled, I put 18 cookies in a clear baked goods bag and drove it over to my friend Alene’s house.

Alene is going through chemotherapy right now for breast cancer.  She is one of my friends from my quilting class.   I have to say that Alene is the one of the funniest of all the women in the class.  I hope that at the end of this month, when her treatments are over, she is back to joining us.  Until then, I hope she enjoys the cookies I made for her today.

My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt (1 1/4 tsp if you really like salt)

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

2 tsp 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

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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 a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on 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, you can freeze rounded tablespoons 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 tablespoons onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.  (I use an melon ball scooper to get consistently-sized cookies.)

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.