Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Pareve)

Jamie Stolper

This cookie is a family favorite and the only one my husband David ever requests. No matter what else is being served, relatives always request that I bring these cookies to a family gathering. I have made them hundreds of times and conducted various taste tests to consider the questions of butter versus margarine, light brown versus dark brown sugar, large versus small cookies. Surprisingly, the pareve margarine version always beats the butter one, but do use Fleishman’s unsalted margarine (by far the best pareve margarine). My family also prefers the larger size, but with the lesser amount of chips.

This recipe is easy and you can break up the steps to fit your schedule. Mix up the dry ingredients the night before, prepare the cookie dough and store in the refrigerator up to a day, or freeze the dough and defrost when ready to use. My family even likes to sneak the raw dough as I’m baking! You can vary the recipe by using different flavor chips (milk chocolate, mint chocolate, or a combination of semisweet or milk chocolate and peanut butter) or by adding 1 cup chopped nuts.

If you want to want to make your kids’ day, prepare the cookie dough and refrigerate, and bake a tray of cookies right before you want to serve them. There is nothing like a warm chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven with a glass of milk.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) Fleishman’s unsalted margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup (generous) firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (not artificial!)
2 extra-large eggs
1 1/2 - 2 cups (9-12 ounces) pareve semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (or 350 degrees in a convection oven).
2. Place flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and whisk or stir to combine. Set aside.
3. Place margarine, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl of an electric mixer and beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Reduce speed and gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Drop by large rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes (7-9 minutes in a convection oven). If the cookies brown too much at the edges before the middle looks done, reduce oven temperature by 25 degrees and bake an extra minute or two.
6. Let cookies sit on the pan for one minute and then remove with a spatula to a cooling rack.

Makes about 3 dozen large cookies or many more smaller ones.