Chocolate Chip Cookies

My latest batch of chocolate chip cookies (all gone now) 

I love chocolate chip cookies.

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies?

I don't eat chocolate chip cookies but once a year.

Christmas season is the only time I eat chocolate chip cookies…….and then I go overboard.

I have went overboard in eating chocolate chip cookies.

I will make more chocolate chip cookies this weekend.

The first time a chocolate chip cookie went down my pie hole was sometime back in the early Fifties.  My Mother was making homemade cookies in our second floor, two bedroom apartment on Washington Avenue in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  

My beautiful Mom back in the Fifties

My memory is still fresh of standing around the kitchen table while she beat the two sticks of butter in with 3/4 cup each of white sugar and brown sugar.  Then one teaspoon of vanilla.  Then two large eggs.  

Set to the side was a mixture of 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour (the kind without the bugs in it), 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking soda (and now powder - BIG DIFFERENCE - I know, I've tried it).  

After the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs are beaten well (preferably by hand, who uses a mixer?), then blend in the flour mixture, a cup at a time.

After all that is blended, add two cups semi-sweet Nestle's chocolate morsels (only Nestle's works here folks for the Jen-U-Wind Toll House flavor) and one cup BLACK WALNUTS.  None of those regular walnuts that are ubiquitous in the stores during the holiday season.  Oh sure, black walnuts are hard to find and more expensive (even more expensive that regular walnuts? You bet!)  Black walnuts lend a smoky, woodsy flavor that brings back so many fond memories of those days in the early Fifties when I, as a ten year old boy, would stand by my Mother in the kitchen and watch her perform this miracle of making chocolate chip cookies.  

Mom in the kitchen - 1979

We loved to eat (and by "we" I mean me and my two voracious younger brothers John and Isaac) those still warm cookies, with the chocolate chips almost melted, right out of the oven.  Oh God were they ever good.  Those cookies that our Mother made rarely lasted more than two days in the Tipton household on Washington Avenue.  

Some years later, when I was in the Army my Mother used to make those same cookies and send them to me when I was stationed at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts.  They weren't fresh out of the oven but when I opened up that round tin of my Mom's baked chocolate chip cookies I was taken right back home with all that love and warmth and acceptance.  

Mom during her days working at Pepperridge Farms - not cookie division but frozen layer cake- 1960

These days when I make chocolate chip cookies I am again taken back to my Mom's kitchen on the second floor of that apartment building on Washington Avenue.  Another time, another place but the same love.  

Me and my Mom at Wegman's 2009 - long after her cookie making days were over - she died the next year

I am so fortunate that I can recreate these wonderful times in my past by an act as simple and uncomplicated as baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I feel sorry for those folks who turn to drugs or other means for an artificial "high." Sometimes I just stop and think how lucky I am to have the life I have.  

You make your own way in this life folks.  I've made mine and I love it!

Have a great day!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mint Chocolate Chip cookies fresh from the oven

Want a delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe for the holidays? It's been awhile since I posted a recipe but "tis the season" and I'm a baking cookies celebrating the holidays. Tonight I made a fabulous batch of mint chocolate chip cookies with black walnuts.  Yes,  you read it right... BLACK WALNUTS with MINT CHOCOLATE CHIPS!

Doesn't sound like it goes together does it?  Give the recipe a try, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Here is the recipe:

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 bag Hershey's Mint Chocolate Chips
• 1 cup black walnuts

Heat the oven to 375 degrees
In a large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt with electric mixer until creamy.
Add eggs, beat well.
Stir together flow our baking soda; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well mixed.
Stir in mint chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set.
Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
Try to eat JUST ONE (bet you can't)

Mint Chocolate Chip cookies cooling on the rack

This recipe differs slightly form the Original Toll House cookie recipe in that it takes 1 cup of white sugar instead of the 3/4 cup.  Also there is only 1/2 teaspoon salt instead of 1 teaspoon salt.  And finally there is 2 teaspoons vanilla instead of the 1 teaspoon vanilla that the Original Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I like the texture and subtle taste if this version of chocolate chip cookies better than the Original Toll House cookie recipe that we all grew up with and feel is the only legitimate chocolate chip cookie recipe.  The minty coolness contrasted with the musky flavor of North American black walnuts challenges your taste buds to a new adventure.

There is only one problem with this cookie recipe that I can find...they are very addictive!  You absolutely cannot eat just one.  So if you're on some foolhardy Christmas Diet, DON'T BAKE THESE COOKIES!

But if you do decide to take the Chocolate Plunge, enjoy!

This is the Mint Chocolate Chip bag you look for in your local grocery store - this works!

A Guaranteed Pickup

Hey guys, if you ever want a guaranteed pickup here it is: 

 Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I just made a batch a few minutes ago.  Just out of the oven, they're still warm.  Is there anything better than almost melted chocolate meeting your tongue taste buds  like a lava flow down the side of a Hawaiian mountain?  Hmmmm good!


It's been at least two years since I made chocolate chip cookies.  The only problem when I make them (with black English walnuts by the way for that special 'smokey' nut flavor), is that I EAT THEM.  


Those cookies that you see in the picture on this blog?  They will be 'down the hatch' by Tuesday. 

 Gone baby gone!