Chocolate chip cookies

For the past few Christmases, I've made some kind of sweet treat to send to my relatives. I started it one year when I was especially poor and thought a homemade gift would be best. In addition, since I have a lot of relatives, the pressure to get them all something was too much, so sending them a box of chocolate truffles or cookies seemed a nice way to a) use my one talent [and I use the word 'talent' very loosely here]; and b) give something that could be shared by many.




I spent a lot of time trying to decide what kind of cookie to make. I ended up choosing chocolate chip cookies, an admittedly safe choice as I've been making them practically my whole life. I always use the Nestle Toll House cookie recipe, sometimes varying the type of chocolate chips or nuts I add.


This time, I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips. They are much larger than what I've used before, so I was a little surprised when I dumped them into the bowl. For the size of cookies I was making (small), they were too large. But there was no turning back.



I gotta say, for cookie production, my ice cream scooper is probably one of the best investments I've ever made, along with parchment paper and a wire cooling rack.




I'm being environmentally-friendly by packaging the cookies in these plastic containers which my relatives can reuse.

[Translation: I went looking for containers way too late so all the good ones were gone.]


At least I managed to find a pretty bow.

Merry Christmas!