Chocolate cookies are loved by most people I know. And most of us discovered our love for them as small children in the comfort of grandma’s kitchen. For some reason her cookies were always much better than mom’s. Maybe it is because they were always hot and soft or because she probably let you eat as many as you wanted. Whatever the reason, one thing is sure. You loved, and maybe still do love, chocolate chip cookies.

Chocolate chip cookies are the perfect snack. You can eat them when they are warm and right out of the oven or you can save them for a few days and still enjoy them just as much. Some people even love to eat the dough of the chocolate chip cookies before they are baked. Not many other snacks can be eaten in so many fun ways. Perfect with a glass of milk, chocolate cookies can be enjoyed after school, just before bed, and during any season of the year. They are just as good when it is freezing cold outside as they are in the middle of summer.

Chocolate chip cookies are the most famous kind of cookies. Everyone has eaten one and most everyone loves them. You can find them in every grocery store and bakery you enter, and most every cook I know has a special recipe to make the perfect batch. Chocolate chip cookies are great because they are made with a few simple ingredients, most of which you have in the house all the time.

Making chocolate chip cookies is a perfect way to get children started working in a kitchen and learning to cook. All kids love to help mom with mixing and pouring the ingredients together, and there is nothing better to let kids experiment with than chocolate chip cookies. Kids can get involved and have a special job to do and they can see and taste the results of their hard work. Baking chocolate chip cookies is a great family building activity that can fill any Saturday afternoon with fun.

So the next time you remember how great grandma’s chocolate chip cookies really were, get out your own secret recipe and get your whole family to make the special memory of making and baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

About the Author:

Rachael Cleipher has always loved chocolate chip cookies and has developed a secret recipe of her own. You can too by checking out www.chocolatechipcookieshub.info

1. Measure ingredients accurately, especially the flour. Too much flour will make your cookies hard and dry. If you scoop the flour with the measuring cup instead of spooning sifted flour into your cup, you are likely to have 20% too much flour.

2. Sugar cookies are made by the creaming method. This is the most important step in making sugar cookies—it incorporates the air into the dough that acts as a leavening agent. Use the paddle attachment of your electric mixer to cream the sugar, salt, and spices with the butter or shortening. Cream the ingredients together at low speed, not high. For light cookies, cream the mixture until it is light and fluffy. For a denser, moister cookie, cream only until the mixture is paste-like.

3. Add the eggs and liquid after creaming, beating these in at low speed.

4. Mix the flour into the creamed mixture only until it is combined. If you over-mix, you will develop the gluten and make a tougher cookie.

5. Choose a low protein flour, preferably pastry flour, for your sugar cookies. Avoid bread flours with their high protein content. All purpose flour is an acceptable compromise.

6. If the dough is too soft to work easily, chill it until firm. The dough should be pliable but not squishy soft. Handling of the dough with warm hands will make the dough soft.

7. Use no more flour than necessary to dust the counter. The flour will work into the dough for a drier, tougher cookie.

8. Too much re-rolling will make for tougher cookies. Not only does successive re-rolling work the dusting flour into the dough, the continued working of the dough develops the gluten.

9. When cutting shapes, make the cuts as close together as you can to minimize the amount of dough that will be re-rolled.

10. Most recipes call for the dough to be rolled to 1/8 inch in thickness. This creates a crisp cookie. For a moister, less crisp cookie, roll the dough to 1/4 inch only.

11. Remove the cookies from the counter with a thin metal spatula.

12. When garnishing cookies with sprinkles, drop the decorations from a height of eight or ten inches for a more even distribution.

13. The size of the cookies will affect bake times. Put like-sized cookies on the same sheet.

14. Do not over bake cookies. Thin cookies will bake in seven or eight minutes at 350 degrees. Thicker cookies will take ten or twelve minutes. Cookies on darker pans will bake in less time. When done, the cookies will still be pale-colored with just a tinge of brown at the edges.

15. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Do not frost them until they are completely cooled.

Copyright 2003-2007, The Prepared Pantry (www.prepraredpantry.com ). Published by permission

Pink Lemonade Cookies

1 cup sugar
¼ butter, softened
1 egg
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 to 2 drops red food color
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar, if desired

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine ½ cup sugar, butter, egg, lemon peel, lemon juice and red food color in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking powder and salt. Beat until well mixed. Cover; refrigerate until firm (1 hour).

Shape dough into ½-inch balls; roll in remaining sugar. Place 2-inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten balls to ¼-inch thickness with bottom of buttered glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Imagine pouring a glass of sweet, tangy lemonade into a cookie. The results are these delightful, lemony flavored cookies with their pretty pink coloring.

Pink Lemonade Cookies

1 cup sugar
¼ butter, softened
1 egg
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 to 2 drops red food color
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar, if desired

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine ½ cup sugar, butter, egg, lemon peel, lemon juice and red food color in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking powder and salt. Beat until well mixed. Cover; refrigerate until firm (1 hour).

Shape dough into ½-inch balls; roll in remaining sugar. Place 2-inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten balls to ¼-inch thickness with bottom of buttered glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

About the Author:

© Donna Monday Love Cookies? All your favorites here http://www.best-cookie-jar-recipes.com

Old-Fashioned Molasses Cookies

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup shortening
¾ cup molasses
1 egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
sugar

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine butter, brown sugar, shortening, molasses and egg in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add all remaining ingredients except sugar. Beat until well mixed. Cover; refrigerate until firm (1 to 2 hours).

Shape dough into 1 ½-inch balls; roll in sugar. Place 2-inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten balls with glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 8 to 11 minutes or until set.

So, what is a cookie, what’s it made of and what does it do? A cookie is a tiny text file that a web site can put on your computer as you browse the pages on that web site. One thing people don’t understand is that a web site can only read and write its own cookies, it cannot access another web site’s cookies. Cookies are used for storing various items of information, such as a name, or a selection choice you made. This information will be read back from the when you load other pages on the site, or, on return visits to the site.

What reason does a web site need to use cookies? Web browsers are stateless, stateless means that as you through various pages on a web site, each of those pages is a separate and distinct action. For example, the web server does not know it’s the same person that was on the home page that made the request for the order page. This is very different from desktop applications like Microsoft Excel that you run on your computer. The web server sees all page requests as individual requests for pages, not as a continuous visit from you. As you move through a web site and select things and make choices, what keeps you from having to reenter or reselect that information as you load each page? Usually the answer is a cookie. A cookie can be used by the web server to keep track of you as a user so that as you navigate from page A to page B, the web server knows it’s you and the developer of the web site can reference those items stored in your cookie to maintain a stateful experience for your session or visit to the web site.

Occasionally, you may want or need to delete your cookies.

You can delete your cookies a few ways. Most web browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, FireFox, Opera,

etc.) have different ways to do this, so consult the help for your browser on how to delete the cache files and cookies. There are also several software packages to clean your PC and these packages also delete cookies.

Using cookies improves your user experience when browsing the Internet. Is there a security risk or danger to cookies? A web site can use cookies for saving information that you enter into forms on web pages and that’s where security concerns arise. Usually this never causes any problem, however, before letting someone use your computer, or taking your computer somewhere to be repaired or serviced, always delete your browser’s cache AND cookies!
Each browser is different, so consult your help files for the browser you use (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, FireFox, Opera, etc.) for how to delete the cache files and cookies.

About the Author:

Fred Black created www.WebSiteTrainingOnline.com, An Introduction to Creating Web Sites, to help guide others seeking to learn about HTML, CSS, and more.

Peanut Butter Thumbprint Kiss Cookies

Heat oven to 375* and assemble ingredients. You will need: half cup granulated sugar, half cup packed brown sugar, half cup shortening (or margarine), half cup peanut butter, 1 egg, 1& quarter cup all-purpose flour, three-fourth teaspoon baking soda, one teaspoon baking powder, quarter teaspoon salt and a bag of Hershey kisses.

\First, mix sugars, shortening (butter or margarine), peanut butter and egg. Once it is creamy, start to slowly add the dry mixture of flour baking soda, baking powder and salt, until it is mixed. Then shape dough into one inch balls and put them three inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Make the thumbprint (press the middle of each cookie with your thumb) and put a Hershey’s kiss on each cookie, in the thumbprint.

Bake, 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are slightly browned and set, but not too hard. You may need to adjust your baking time as ovens differ. Cool the cookies, on the cookie sheet, for a few minutes then remove them to a cooling rack. I have found that I have less wasted time if I have a duplicate set of cookie sheets so I do not have to wait for the one from the last batch to cool. This will make about three & half dozen cookies that your family will love.

This recipe can be doubled if you are part of a Christmas cookie exchange group. To double it, you would need: one cup granulated sugar; one cup packed brown sugar, one cup butter or margarine, two eggs, two & half cup flour, one & half teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder, half teaspoon salt. Doubling the recipe will give you about 7 dozen cookies.

Because many people have favorites of their own, it is fun to see if someone in your family or a close friend wants to share their favorite cookies with you by becoming part of a Christmas Cookie Exchange. It is easy to do when you double your recipes. You will be able to share half of your baked goods and receive half of theirs so you will have different kinds of Christmas cookies. They get to enjoy a bigger variety that way. Many different varieties of chocolate chip cookies can be seen the article, “Favorite Christmas Cookies two. You can also see other recipes in the article entitled “Cookie Exchange Will Save at Time at Christmas”. Do try out these recipes this Christmas and holiday season and treat your family.

About the Author:

Social network users, click for myspace comments and myspace graphics. Add christmas myspace layouts to your profile.

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Favorite Christmas Cookies - Toll House Variety Chip Cookies
Submitted By: CD Mohatta

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Christmas is a wonderful time of year to bake cookies and it is a great chance to make family memories, too. Have your children help you bake cookies and all of you can enjoy the sweet smells as the cookies bake. You can take turns telling stories while you share a cup of hot chocolate. The wonderful family memories will last a lot longer that your cookies will! My all-time favorite cookies are TOLL HOUSE chocolate chip cookies. I can almost smell warm chocolate chip cookies as I am writing about them; they are so deeply imbedded in my memories of Christmas.

TOLL HOUSE chocolate chip cookies

Nestles has made different types of morsels to suit everyone’s personal desire and taste. They now have white chocolate morsels, swirled milk chocolate and caramel morsels, semi-sweet chocolate swirled with white chocolate morsels, mini morsels and the regular semi-sweet chocolate morsels. Each bag has its own recipe but each type of morsels uses the same ingredient, with the exception of the White Chocolate Chip Cookies which have one additional ingredient for the “dry” mixture (Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE BAKING cocoa).

If you want to double the recipe in order to be part of a cookie exchange group, the main ingredients for each type of cookie can be doubled. Then it would be necessary to double the amount of morsels. The basic ingredients doubled are: 4 & ½ cup all purpose flour, 2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoon salt, 2 cups butter softened (4 sticks), 1 & ½ cup granulated sugar, 1 & ½ cup of packed brown sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 4 eggs.

For:

White Chocolate cookies you will need to add 1 additional ingredient to the dry mixture. It is 1 & 1/3 cups Toll House baking cocoa to the dry mixture and 2 packages (12oz.) of Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE Premium White Morsels.

Milk chocolate and caramel cookies you will need 2 packages (12oz.) of Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE Milk Chocolate and Caramel Morsels (1 cup chopped pecans, if you want).

Swirled semi-sweet white chocolate cookies you will need 2 packages (12oz.) of Nestle’s TOLL HOUSE swirled Real Semi-Sweet & White Chocolate Morsels (2 cups of nuts, if you like).

After you have gathered all your ingredients, heat the oven to 350*. You will need 2 bowls: a medium one for the dry mixture and a large one to mix all the ingredients for the cookies. In the medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients (4 & ½ cup all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons baking soda). In the large bowl, add the 1 & ½ cup of granulated sugar and 1 & ½ cup of packed brown sugar, 4 sticks (2 cups) softened margarine, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and beat until creamy. Add 4 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after adding each one.

Now, gradually add the dry mixture. Stir in 2 bags of your choice of morsels (and nuts if you choose). Drop a rounded tablespoon of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Place a few morsels on top of each cookie and bake 9-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes then remove to wire racks. This will make about 9 dozen of the best tasting cookies you will ever have!

It is fun to see if someone in your family or a close friend wants to share their favorite cookies with you by becoming part of a Christmas Cookie Exchange. Because many people have favorites of their own, you will be able to enjoy a variety of cookies. It is simple when you double your recipes. You will be able to share ½ of your baked goods and receive ½ of theirs so you will have a bigger selection.

My family loves my Christmas cookies but they also love and enjoy eating different kinds of cookies baked by their aunt. In Favorite Christmas Cookies 1, you saw how I made Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies. In Christmas Cookies Part 3, you will see another kind of cookie called Swirled Turtle Brownies. You can also see other recipes in the article entitled “Cookie Exchange Will Save at Time at Christmas”. Enjoy the time you spend making Christmas cookies and memories and remember, make it fun.