Back in 2012, a colleague and I missed our flight, and ended up becoming friends with our seat mate on our next flight. I remember he said he had been perfecting his chocolate chip cookie recipe for four years, and I was amazed at his dedication and passion. Years later, I discovered a passion for baking, and I find myself doing the same thing (great for my happiness, debatably great for my waistline).

In the spirit of sharing, I wanted to share my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is a combination of a few recipes I have tried over the years. I landed on this one based on the following personal principles:

1. Minimize food waste

2. Minimizing amount of cooking utensils required and therefore cleaning

3. Aiming for soft, chewy cookies - wanted to get them thicker

4. Sweet, but not too sweet.

Wrap these cookies up in a reusable napkin, and/or in some reusable Tupperware. They are great to bring to a potluck, or small homemade gift to bring to a friend.

Ingredients:

Dry

• 3 cups of all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon of baking soda

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

• 2 teaspoons of corn starch

• 1 teaspoon of salt

Wet

• 1 cup of unsalted butter (two 0.5 cup sticks), roughly room temp

• 1 cup of white sugar

• 1 cup of brown sugar

• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

• 2 eggs

• 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips

• (optional) some sea salt to sprinkle on top before putting in the oven

Instructions:

1. Set the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (skip this step if you’ll be refrigerating dough)

2. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients

3. In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients

   • (1) Butter, sugars - try not to over beat/blend

   • (2) Add vanilla, and eggs

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the LARGE bowl

5. Add in the chocolate chips

6. Scoop the cookie dough into balls, either with a cookie scooper, your hands, or spoons.

7. Preferred, but optional in a pinch: put the balled dough into the fridge for a hour or two

8. When ready, put the dough on a baking sheet roughly 2 inches apart. Optional sprinkling of sea salt on top if salty-sweet is your jam.

Bake 375 - rule of thumb: use the oven light and bake until the edges turn slightly brown and then take them out.

• Refrigerated: 12-13 min

• Not refrigerated: 11-12 min

Some field notes:

I landed on this ratio of ingredients primarily because it required measuring cups, etc. It also combined some of the best ingredient ratios of some of my favorite cookie recipes. The magic ingredient of using corn starch was from Sally’s Baking Addition, and my best friend Katy P shared me the secret of using milk chocolate chips.

I usually put the dough in the refrigerator first, and then bake them when I’m ready. I keep them up to 1 week in the fridge, and then maybe a month in the freezer. Note: if you’re baking frozen dough, I would recommend cooking it at 325 and for longer maybe 13 min.

However, sometimes I’m in a hurry to bake them and so I’ll bake them immediately - and they generally turn out fine. Since the dough will be warmer, the cookies will end up baking flatter.

Favorite cooking items

• Nordic Ware Naturals Aluminum Baking Sheet: I don’t line my baking sheets or oil them, and I purchased mine from Cost Plus. Note: I recommend hand washing these to keep off these weird spots, and the website says to avoid using metal scouring pads.

• Guittard Milk Chocolate Maxi Chips: I use these when I’m feeling super fancy, and for special occasions. The cookies end up being a lot sweeter (since we are using milk chocolate vs semi-sweet), and these chocolate disks are HUGE. I call these the Tesla of chocolate chips. Purchased mine from Cost Plus.

• Maldon Sea Salt: if you’re feeling fancy, this sea salt is nice and flaky.