Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies

Stacy was on a quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie and we've made a lot of different recipes until we found this one. Interestingly, she was baking something else and noticed the recipe on the bag of flour. She said, "Any recipe claiming to be 'extraordinary' deserves a look." We made them and have never turned back. We think they are pretty extraordinary. --Mark

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups softened butter
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 T vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 bag (24 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (4 cups)

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs on medium speed or with spoon until light and fluffy. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in chocolate chips.

On an ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by tablespoonfuls or #40 cookie/ice cream scoop 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.

Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool 1 to 2 minutes remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Notes:

Makes about 6 dozen cookies. For Nut Lovers: Stir in 2 cups coarsely chopped nuts with the chocolate chips. Four cups of chocolate chips is actually a lot so we cut the amount in half. You can play with the amounts until you get the perfect amount for you. You can also substitute peanut butter for up to about half of the butter for a nice change. Our best version was 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1 cup butter. We also cut the sugar -- just drop off that extra 1/4 cup on each.