Brown sugar

The rest of the light brown sugar mingling with the dark brown sugar...

This chocolate chip cookie recipe was insanely good. The cookies stayed chewy and the mix of chocolate was a stroke of genius on my part. (If I do say so myself)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 c unsifted flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
1 c Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips
1 c Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375. Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy and lightened in color (about 4 minutes). Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until incorporated.

Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Yield: nearly 4 dozen cookies

It occurred to me the other night that there are tips in baking cookies that I can impart to my dear readers. Here goes:

1) Cook one pan of cookies at a time for best even cooking. I know sometimes I've tried to jockey two pans in the oven but I'm constantly worried and it always seems one pan is overdone too quickly. If you can just take your time you're better off.

2) When you take the cookies from the oven, remove them quickly and place on wire baking racks. They'll cool down the quickest and have the best texture.

3) Use as many pans as possible. When I take one pan from the oven I can throw another pan in for baking. I then remove the cookies from the first pan, wipe the pan with a paper towel to remove crumbs and distribute any grease, then cool down the pan before loading it up with new drops of cookie dough. If you put the dough on a hot cookie sheet too soon, the butter will start melting from the dough and spread out along the pan, causing an ugly spreading thin cookie that will have super dark edges. Always try to get the pan to room temperature.