The Butler’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was inspired by a post from Barbara at A Chelsea Morning to try again to get puffy chocolate chip cookies. She got some advice and provided a recipe that gave her great cookies. Would it work for me?

Here’s what they looked like:

They were definitely puffier than the chewey King Arthur Flour version I tried not that long ago. Alas however, they still were not the chocolate chip cookie of my dreams. And I even used shortening and it still didn’t work.

My brothers-in-law thought they were great and polished off the batch in about a day and a half. Good thing I wasn’t counting on those lasting for longer.

Mexican Wedding Cookies a.k.a. Russian Tea Cakes a.k.a. Good Stuff

These may very well be my favorite cookies of all time. So why do I make them so infrequently?

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped
• additional powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream butter and sugar, then add vanilla. Stir in flour, nuts, and salt until dough holds together. Shape into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 – 15 minutes or until set but not brown.

Here they are just out of the oven; these are perfect:

While still warm, roll in powdered sugar, then let cool, and roll in powdered sugar again.

These were the last of the cookies I put together in a gift bag for my coworkers (along with molasco cookies and chocolate trufflettes), and they were by far the favorites. I had several people send emails or stop me in the hall to exclaim over how good “those white cookies” were.

Molasco Cookies

This is a recipe from my mom. They’re not so molasses heavy as some versions, which is good when I’m making a bunch to share with coworkers and I’m not sure about their feelings for molasses.

• 2 1/2 cups sifted flour (I did not sift. I was lazy.)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 egg
• additional sugar

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger; set aside.

Melt butter and allow to cool slightly. Stir in 1 cup of sugar and the molasses, then add the egg. Mix well. Add the flour mixture and combine well.

Refrigerate dough 4 – 5 hours or overnight. (Or put it in your freezing cold garage for a few hours. That’ll work too and there’s more room out there than in my fridge).

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in additional sugar until lightly coated. Place on a lightly greased sheet (or use a baking mat or parchment paper) and bake for 8 – 10 minutes at 375F. (You did preheat your oven, didn’t you?)

Chewey Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m too lazy tonight to type the entire set of instructions, but the ingredients feature all the usual suspects, as well as some light corn syrup and white vinegar. Other than that it seems pretty standard with mixing method and baking directions.

So, this:

Produced this:

The verdict:
These are good. But they’re still harder than I want and not soft and poofy. They hardened up even more after the first day. They are better than the Toll House version, but I’ve got to keep looking. Bummer.

Other testers’ verdicts: Who knows, they scarfed them down so fast. Of course, these were also a bunch of single guys, so any homemade dessert would most likely have been greeted in the same fashion.