Cookie Recipes: Variations on A Theme

Well hallo there. Pressed for time, tissue box in hand. Yes, I am still suffering from the same cold that has plagued me all week, and still have a colossal amount of writing to get done, (25 pages left to write tonight...) so my blog posts are unfortunately going to be far and few between. But alas! This post is going to be EPIC... mostly for its versatility, partly for the inherent impress-factor, (I guarantee you will be more popular than you can imagine if you arrive with these babies at your next dinner party... or deliver them hand-wrapped to your significant other or Valentines Day date *cough cough*) So here we go, let's dive right in....

Below you will find my recipe-tested, friend-approved, all around delicious recipe for the best cookie dough EVER (to put it humbly.) It's simple and you have all these ingredients (or most) already in your kitchen. So here it is in nine simple steps for your cooking convenience...

Cookie Dough

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour

1.5 teaspoons baking soda

1.5 teaspoons salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup cane sugar

1.5 cups light brown sugar

3 eggs

1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions (you'll need four bowls for this recipe - two large two small)

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in large bowl #1

2. In small bowl #1 melt 2 sticks of butter (if you want you can melt the butter over the stone, in which case you'd need a pot and not a small bowl, but I digress...)

3. Transfer butter to large bowl #2

4. Add brown and cane sugar to large bowl #2 and whisk mixture together on medium-high speed with beater until it turns a light brown (don't worry if it's not too light brown, just make sure all ingredients are mixed well)

5. Add 1 egg. Mix until combined

6. Add 2nd egg. Mix until combined

7. In small bowl #2 crack third egg. Lightly beat with fork. Add 3/4 of a teaspoon to bowl #2 (sugar/butter/egg mixture.) Mix in thoroughly

8. Add vanilla extract. Mix in thoroughly

9. Add in flour/baking soda/salt mixture in PARTS (otherwise you will have TRES TRES mess!) until dough forms...

NOW! At this point you can add chocolate chips (about 1-2 cups or whatever amount you so desire...) and cook those babies up on 375 for 7-10 minutes BUT.... you could also use your imagination and add anything you want to this dough to make... (as I have with varying degrees of success...)

-Pecan cookies

-Date cookies (chopped and added in)

-Peanut butter cookies (add a few tablespoons to dough)

-Banana cookies (OR peanut butter AND banana cookies!)

-Pine nut cookies

-Raspberry cookies (added 2 tablespoons raspberry jam to dough) along with some fresh smooshed raspberries

-Smores cookies

-Substitute 1.5 cups of the flour for crumbled graham crackers

-Add chocolate chips + marshmallows to dough

-Apple cinnamon cookies (I cooked down the apples first then added 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg to dough when adding in vanilla extract)

See? In one recipe I have now provided you with an absolutely infinite number of possibilities! I could potentially never post again and have fulfilled my recipe quota for the year (I keed, I keed... but really, there's no end to where you can take this delish dough...)

Anyhoo, it's back to the grind and writing for me....

Let me know in the comments section if you decide to try out any of my (or your own!) variations for this dough!

Xo