Chocolate Chip Cookies

What can I say? These cookies are my childhood.

These cookies were one of the first things I ever learned how to bake. My mother used to whip up the dough, measure out the chocolate chips, hand me a metal spoon, and let me mix them in. The best part of the whole process. There's nothing quite like pouring in handfuls of chocolate, slowly mixing them in, watching the buttery dough coat the chips so they start to shine. All the while the oven is warming your back and you just know that you are nine minutes away from the most important bit of all- the test cookie.

Sometimes a kid's gotta do, what a kid's gotta do.

To make the cookies the same size, I use a tiny ice cream scoop. The dough looks a bit like ice cream too.

I don't have a recipe for you. I am sorry, but this isn't my recipe to give away. It's a family secret.

What I can say is that the recipe is based off of Betty Crocker's Chocolate Chip Cookies. When our red Betty Crocker cookbook is opened to the right page, a tiny yellow post-it sits above the picture, the few extra ingredients jotted down. I always add the extra flour for a "softer, rounder cookie". Yes, I'm one of those people who prefer a thicker cookie to a thin crispy one. I blame these cuties entirely.

Just one bite and I'm a kid again, sneaking into the kitchen for just one more.

What's your favorite family recipe?