Growing up on Cape Cod has its perks: beautiful beaches, summer baseball leagues, glowing sunrises and sunsets over the water, and as much seafood as you can stuff yourself with. Winters on the Cape are polar opposite: dark, gray, damp and deserted. So while I spent the summers galavanting around on the beaches and searching for hermit grabs, the winters were spent across the street at my gram’s bayside cottage learning the most important lessons in life from her: knitting, Manhattans and chocolate chip cookies.
Yes, according to my gram, if you were successful at these three things then you had all the keys to happiness and success. “Knitting to keep you warm, chocolate chip cookies to keep you sweet and full, and Manhattans to keep you sane.” So at the ripe age of 6 years old I started knitting, learning the art of the making the perfect Manhattan, and my gram’s secret chocolate chip recipe.
Over the years my knitting has improved, my Manhattan has saved me from insanity more times then it probably should have, and I’ve tweaked the cookie recipe to make it mine and even more delicious. Far too often my friends complain that their cookies come out hard, flat, oily, not cooked in the middle, teeth breaking, or burnt (turn your oven down Katie!) So I have finally caved and decided to share my grandmother’s tweaked chocolate chip cookie recipe with the world, hoping that it will forever replace the roll of Pillsbury cookie dough resting on your refrigerator shelves.
Ingredients
- 1 cup soft butter (Let sit on counter for a day to warm up)
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 packet of French vanilla instant pudding mix (the normal size, not jumbo packet)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 11.5 ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (go with milk chocolate if you want them extra sweet)
Instructions
- Mix butter until it is light and fluffy. Add in sugars, vanilla, almond extract and dry pudding mix (do not make the pudding). Mix well.
- Add in eggs and continue to mix. In a separate bowl lightly toss baking soda and flour together. Slowly mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients (normally in three rounds) until dough is blended and thick. Remove from mixer. Pour in bag of chocolate chips and mix together by hand. Roll dough into tiny balls (roughly the size of a ping pong ball) and put in refrigerator for two hours.
- Once the dough is chilled, preheat oven to 375 F and lay parchment paper on baking sheets. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes or until light brown on top.
- Remove from oven and let sit on baking pan for 5 minutes. Let cool.
- Fun Substitute Ideas: Add 1/2 cup berries and 1/2 cup chocolate chips for variety. At Thanksgiving I make them with cranberries. At Christmas use 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint oil and mint chocolate chips. Blueberries are also delicious!
- Fun Tips: Kitchenaid mixer and parchment paper work best
