And the Tough Get Cooking

I decided that if I can't do anything about operations and tumors and cancer, I CAN make chocolate chip cookies. These are not the standard Toll House Cookie Recipe that we all grew up on. Nope, these are, New and Improved, HOT from my oven in New Jersey, and personally driven and hand delivered to Shane in Michigan by his Uncle Jim:

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES IN THE WORLD:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp table salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, melted until slightly browned

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk only

2 cups (12 oz) Ghirardelli or Hershey's semi-sweet chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Position the rack in the middle of the oven.

Stir sugars and vanilla into melted butter. Whisk or gently mix. Wait 3 minutes, mix again. Wait 3 minutes. Mix again.

Add egg and egg yolk. Mix gently until incorporated.

Stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to melted butter, sugar mixture. Stir or mix gently. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonful onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Cool slightly. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

A Cook's Notes:

By browning and melting the butter you are accomplishing two things:

1. Adding more depth of flavor with the browned butter

2. Aiding in the melting of the sugars. This will keep the cookie chewier.

The egg yolk will also give your cookies more chewiness; rather than a cake like texture that the egg white would add.

The higher ratio of dark brown sugar to white adds even more depth of flavor and adds a caramel crispness to the outside of the cookie

Use Hershey or Ghirardelli chocolate - it is a better quality than Nestle.

Bake in batches - only one tray at a time. Yes, it's time consuming, but you will get a better, even baked cookie. Use two trays - one in the oven and one ready to go. Don't put batter on hot tray, allow cookie sheet to cool before reloading.

And finally, make these cookies for small boys (and girls) and not so small boys and girls with scary stuff in their lives.