Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the paralegals in my office has been begging me for days to make some plain chocolate chip cookies for her. This was a bit of a challenge, since all of the recipes I normally use contain oatmeal, or walnuts, or multiple varieties of chocolate chips. Even more so since the chocolate chip cookie is simultaneously one of the most simple and yet most difficult cookies to perfect. Everyone knows what they think a chocolate chip cookie should taste like, but no one agrees. Soft or crisp? Thin or fat?

I decided to search on Allrecipes for their most popular recipe, which turns out to be called Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (the hyperbolic names on Allrecipes are its one flaw; when I copy a recipe onto my index cards, I leave the name behind).

Based on several of the reviews, I made a few alterations to the basic recipe, adding baking powder, salt, and more vanilla extract (the key to any decent chocolate chip cookie):

2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar, and then beat in the pudding mix. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and stir until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate the dough for 30-60 minutes (this is an essential step with butter-heavy dough like this; it prevents the cookies from baking flat).

Using a cookie scoop to ensure the cookies have a uniform size (ensures uniform baking), place the dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. The scoops can be placed pretty close together, since the dough does not spread much during baking. This is helpful since this recipe makes a big hunk of dough (I ended up with 94 cookies, enough to send some to my wife's office as well).

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes (10 for darker baking sheets, 12 for light ones), then cool on wire racks. Take them out before they look done, and they will cool just right.

I think they turned out great. They are soft, light, and buttery. The vanilla pudding mix keeps them moist, which is nice when you plan to bake a day (or two) before serving, which I usually do when bringing baked goods to the office. I think my paralegal will be pleased.

UPDATE: They were very popular. So much so that the paralegal who asked for them only got two before they were gone. I even had a gentleman from another office stop by the next day to ask for the recipe.