The Family Kitchen: Mom's (Secret) Chocolate Chip Cookies

 My mom made the best cookies. Her sugar cookies and chocolate chip were family favorites. I know everyone says that, but my mom's cookies were amazing! We would have one or the other if not both at almost every family event. Christmas, Easter, etc.

For years, I knew there was something special about them. She had to add something special to make them taste different than every other chocolate chip cookie I had ever had. They were just better. I would make them, and they just were never the same. 

I finally asked her what her recipe for her chocolate chip cookies were and you know what she told me? It's the recipe from the Nestle Toll house bag! I immediately thought of this scene from Friends!

To be honest, I did not believe her! There had to something different because they tasted so much different than when I made them. In all honesty there was not a secret ingredient, but there was a secret tip!

Are you all ready? Big family secret coming here.... you have to cream the butter and sugar together for at least 5 minutes. It totally changes the taste! Don't ask me how or why but it does. Once I started doing that...amazing my cookies finally started tasting like the ones mom made!

So if you want the recipe go buy yourself a bag of nestle toll house chocolate chips and its right there!

Just don't forget to cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes!

                                                  

You can make adaptations as you like. My dad loves these cookies with raisins instead of chocolate chips. You can add nuts, a different type of chocolate chip, add dried fruit, etc. For these cookies, I ran out of all-purpose flour, so it is mixed a bit with whole wheat flour and I only had mini chocolate chips so that's what I used. I prefer using dark chocolate chips myself. They still taste pretty good but do have a bit of a different taste than normal. 

                                             

The other thing I would do different is bake them a bit longer. I baked them for 9 minutes but anywhere from 9-11 minutes is good. These turned out very chewy and thin. You have to taste test while baking cookies right? I also used a cookie scoop but some of the cookies were pretty big. To make them last longer I would probably use a smaller cookie scoop, if I had one! These babies have been portioned out and frozen, so I don't eat them all tonight! A great tip for portion control.