These home-made chocolate chip cookies are classic – crumbly, tender and loaded with chocolate chips. These are just so much better than the packaged cookies or the ones at bakeries that I promise you, you’ll never look at those again. I used Mark Bittman’s recipe from his book “How to Cook Everything” and it is fail-safe. It’s super simple, super-quick and fuss-free. You could use any good quality chocolate bar instead of the chocolate chips, just chop them into small chunks and stir into the cookie dough. These cookies are great for snack boxes, tea-time or just any of those in between times when it is not time for lunch/dinner but you fell ravenous. Happens to me several times a day! Well, these are such good fillers and so yummy too. Cookies make me thirsty. One cookie and a glass or 2 of water fill me up and keep me going until meal time. 
I made these for my daughter’s last day at her pre-school. She’d be joining LKG this June in one of the bigger schools. I wanted to thank her teachers for being kind and understanding and for making it her second home. She always loved going to school and once returning to school after a little vacation, she promptly ran into her teacher’s arms. I was touched by how affectionate they were. I find that in most schools the big ones especially, the teachers wear such pained expressions on their faces and snap at kids (I am not blaming them, I don’t know what I’d do with 50 or 60 such wild things around me, I’d pass out I guess. With just two, I am at my wits ends).
So anyway, these were meant to be “Thank you” favours for the teachers. My daughter helped me bake the cookies and also helped me pack them. I wrapped the cookies in cellophane, she punched holes through the Thank You notes and strung the ribbon through them and I then tied them around the cookies. We did all this the morning of her last day and predictably arrived late at school just like most other days when we don’t bake cookies. My first batch of cookies, I made the colossal mistake of using my ice-cream scoop to shape the cookie mounds and I ended up with massive Oothappam sized cookies. The next batch onwards I used my tablespoon instead which gave me more reasonable cookie sized cookies.
Prep time: 15 mins
Baking time: 10-15 mins per batch
Makes: 2 to 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients
Butter softened – 1 cup
Granulated sugar – ¾ cup
Brown sugar – ¾ cup
Eggs – 2
All purpose flour – 2 cups
Baking soda – ½ tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Vanilla – 1 tsp
Chocolate chips – 1 cup (You can use more if you like)
Method
1. Heat oven to 190 degrees centrigrade (375 degree F).
2. Sieve together flour, baking soda and salt twice. Set aside.
3. Cream together butter and sugars well, for 3 minutes or so. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
4. Add the flour mixture and beat just until the flour in incorporated fully. Add vanilla and then stir in the chocolate chips. You can use any chocolate bar chopped into small chunks instead of chocolate chunks.
5. Drop tablespoon sized mounds of the cookie dough 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets in straight lines. Bake until the bottom and sides are nicely browned and the top is browned a bit as well – about 10 to 15 minutes. Watch carefully and remove from oven once baked. Let the cookies cool on the sheet before transferring with a spatula to an air-tight container. Keeps well for 3-4 days.
