Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night my roommates and I had our annual holiday party. Every year since my roommate Cici and I moved to Manhattan from Philly in the summer of 2008, we’ve loved hosting parties, and every December we’ve thrown a big bash to celebrate the holidays. Last year we were joined by a new roommate Svetlana as we moved into a slightly bigger apartment, which just meant that the tradition has continued with more decorations, more guests, and more hilarity.

I got a request to bake my WCMN cookies for our holiday party, which I thought was a great idea. But I also wanted to change things up a bit. So in addition to the WCMN cookies, I decided to bake America’s favorite cookie, the Chocolate Chip Cookie, too. And both cookies were major hits at the party! I didn’t get enough compliments about how they were so delicious, soft, and moist. I made over 60 cookies, and they were gone in a few short hours. People kept asking for more cookies, but I definitely was not going to continue baking in my red dress! (Plus, I was too busy passing out jello shots!)

These chocolate chip cookies follow the same recipe as my WCMN recipe, but I just added semi-sweet chocolate chips and a little bit of pecans (which is completely optional) instead of white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.

I had a big tray of cookies, alternating rows of white chocolate macadamia and chocolate chip pecan cookies.

I put the tray in the middle of the beer pong table, and the spectators were eating them while watching the games, and players were grabbing those cookies in between shots.

And just for kicks, I wanted to show everyone just one example of how hard we worked on our apartment for this party. We hung ornaments from the ceiling, hung lights, and wrapped garland around everything we could put our hands on.

Check out our beautiful Christmas tree! Growing up my family loved to travel during the holidays, so there weren’t many years that we actually even put up a tree. And when we did, my dad just took out the fake one that we stored in the basement. So it was so exciting for me that this year I got to pick out a real tree for our apartment! I don’t love how the pine needles fall everywhere, but it makes the apartment smell wonderful!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp kosher salt

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional – if not using, then just add 1 cup of the chocolate chips)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
• In a large bowl, combine the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Mix well until smooth
• Beat in the egg and the mix in the vanilla extract
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually stir the dry mixture into the creamed mixture
• Mix in the chocolate chips and pecans, if using
• Set bowl into refrigerator for 10 minutes to let the dough set
• After 10 minutes, make small patties out of the dough and set them onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
• Bake for 10 minutes, and then let cool for 20 minutes.
• Make sure to take out the cookies around 10 minutes, 12 minutes max. The cookies should look a bit undercooked, but it’s fine. They will set while cooling, and this strategy makes the cookies softer and chewier.

Tags: chocolate, cookies