From the EMACS distribution (file COOKIES):

[Someone sent this in from California, and we decided to extend our campaign against information hoarding to recipes as well as software. (Recipes are the closest thing, not involving computers, to software.)

The story appears to be a myth, according to the Chicago Tribune, which says that Mrs Fields Cookies hoards the information completely. Therefore, this recipe can be thought of as a compatible replacement. We have reports that the cookies it makes are pretty good.]

Someone at PG&E called the Mrs. Fields Cookie office and requested the recipe for her cookies. They asked her for her charge card number, and she gave it to them thinking the cost would be $15 to $25. It turned out to be $200!

Therefore, this person is giving the recipe to anyone and everyone she knows (and doesn't know) so that someone can get use of her $200. Anyway, just keep passing it on.

Cream together: 2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar

Add: 4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix together in
separate bowl: 4 cups flour
5 cups oatmeal (put small
amounts of oatmeal in blender until it turns to
powder. Measure out 5 cups of oatmeal and only
"powderize" that, NOT 5 cups "powderized" oatmeal)

1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda

Mix: All of the above

Add: 24 oz. bag of chocolate chips and
1 finely grated 8 oz Hershey bar (plain)

Add: 3 cups chopped nuts (any kind)

Bake on greased cookie sheet (make golf ball sized balls) and bake about two inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Makes 112.


From: ucdavis!lll-lcc!hplabs!parcvax!bane@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (John R. Bane)
Subject: Re: free cookie foundation?

Hi! I "stole" your very expensive cookie recipe off the net. If you want to send me your SnailMail address, I'll be glad to send you a dollar (I would like to suggest this to the net, but I think there is some netiquette rule against asking for money - or is that only money for oneself?) to help defray the cost (it's not much, but if EVERYone who took the recipe sent you a dollar, it would help).

Here also is another cookie recipe which I'm very fond of.

Makes 6-8 dozen
Bake at 375 degrees for ~10 min.

Cream together:

1 cup shortening (I use Weight Watcher's Reduced Calorie Margarine!)
1/4 cup peanut butter (I recommend the non-sugared kind)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add:

1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups rolled oats (I use the 5-min variety)
1-2 cups chocolate chips (I use 2 cups semi-sweet - ummmm!)
1 cup nuts (I use pecan pieces - don't get them crushed, or the extra
oil will make greasy cookies)
1 cup shredded or flaked coconut

(The nuts were listed as optional and I added the coconut myself, but
I really love them there! You could also add things like m&m's, or
raisins (I don't care for raisins in cookies, but you might). I've
always wanted to try banana chips.)

Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet (I use pam).
Bake at 375 degrees for approx. 10 min.

My aunt found this recipe in an Amish book called something like
"Eating Well When The Whole World Is Starving," and although I thought
a cookie recipe was a bit odd for a book like that, they are about the
healthiest a cookie is ever likely to get.

They are also very easy to make (no blending, sifting, rolling, etc.)
and extremely delicious. I get rave reviews and recipe requests whenever
I make them.

- rene


Chocolate Chip Cookies - Glamorous, crunchy, rich with chocolate bits & nuts.

Also known as "Toll House" Cookies ... from Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield's charming New England Toll House on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts. These cookies were first introduced to American homemakers in 1939 through our series of radio talks on "Famous Foods From Famous Eating Places."

Mix Thoroughly :
2/3 cup soft shortening ( part butter )
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar ( packed )
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Sift together and stir in :
1-1/2 cups sifted flour (*)
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

Stir in :
1/2 cup cut-up nuts
6 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate pieces ( about 1-1/4 cups )

(*) for a softer, more rounded cookie, use 1-3/4 cups sifted flour.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls about 2" apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until delicately browned ... cookies should still be soft. Cool slightly before you remove them from the baking sheet.

Temperature: 375 F. ( modern oven )
Time: bake 8 - 10 minutes
Amount: 4 - 5 dozen 2" cookies


Personal comments :

I find it tastes better with a mixture of shortening and butter, as they say.

You don't need ** all ** of that sugar, and it can be whatever color you want.

The nuts are optional. Feel free to play with the recipe. I put oatmeal in it, reducing flour accordingly, and sometimes cinnamon.

I also find it useful to grease the cookie sheets.

I think I'm going to go bake some now ...

-- richard

dg's chocolate chip cookie recipe

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. hot water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt (less if you choose)
3 cups flour
1 package chocolate chips

Cream sugars and shortening. Add eggs, water, soda and vanilla. Stir until mixed (but not tOo well or else the cookies will be weird) and add dry ingredients. Drop from tsp. onto a greesed cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.

Makes approx. 5 dozen.

I am baking some for CowboyNeal right at this moment on 2-27-00 @ 6:23pm

This recipe is easiest with a mixer of some sort in order to blend the dough thoroughly. It probably could be done by hand, but the dough is very tough to handle due to the ingredients chosen. It's still worth a shot, of course, you'll just need to be willing to dig in and knead it with your hands. The ingredient combination results in a perfectly moist, awesome cookie, and though it's not just chocolate chip, the recipe is very similar, improvised and modified from a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. I live at a high altitude (around 2km/1 mi) so you may want to use slightly less flour. The ingredients are in customary units, so try 2 or 2¼ cups instead of 2.333333~~ (I may come back and add metric once I get my TI-85 back; I am too lazy to just figure it out now...)

Many people have difficulty making soft, moist chocolate chip cookies. The secret is to make them a little larger than recommended, and if you live at a high altitude, add slightly more flour. Almost every recipe I encounter says to use one tablespoon of dough to make one cookie. This seems way too small to me. I use probably three times more, although I don't measure it. I just try to keep it consistent. For the following batch, I usually yield about 30 cookies, about three inches in diameter each. The larger the cookie, the more moist it will be, and the more it needs to be baked. Also, I recommend an air-insulated cookie sheet, as they are far superior to simple pans. I've never burnt a cookie on one.

Ingredients:

  • Anywhere from two to two and 1/3 cups of flour, use more at higher altitude
  • One teaspoon of baking soda
  • Two eggs
  • One and ½ cups of sugar. This can be all brown, all white, or a mixture. I use one cup of brown, and ½ cup white.
  • 3/4 to one cup (depending on health consciousness) of butter, margarine, or shortening. I use Smart Balancetm or Spectrum Naturalstm margarines. They are non-hydrogenated.
  • ¼ to 3/4 cup (ibid) of peanut butter (see here)
  • One to four teaspoons of real vanilla extract (depending on vanilla love)
  • A pinch of salt (some recipes call for more, I think less makes them more dense and moist)
  • ½ to one full cup of nuts if you really want 'em (I don't)
  • Two cups of "chips." This can be all chocolate, or some blend. I use half chocolate chips, half peanut butter chips. I think it's better that way (Reese'stm and Ghirardellitm...mmm)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. To begin, you must mix the flour, salt, and baking soda separately. In your mixing bowl, toss in everything else except the chips and nuts. You really can vary your butter and peanut butter. Most recipes call for the butter to be soft and at room temperature, so it doesn't splatter all over the place when you try to mix it. The margarines I use blend up right away right out of the fridge. The combination of the two "butters" in varying amounts seems to keep the cookies moist, and if you want you can go beyond my recommendations, but I can make no guarantees there. I've noticed that peanut butter cookies are far easier to bake perfectly than chocolate chip. By combining both ideas, you get the best of both worlds, in taste and texture.

In your mixer, blend the ingredients thoroughly so it's nice and creamy, and toss in the dry ingredients. It's a good idea to have a rubber spatula to assist the mixer, as the dough starts off pretty heavy and may confound your device. I have a nice heavy duty Kitchen Aidtm, and it needs help sometimes. Allow the dough to mix thoroughly, but only for a few minutes at most. No need to massively knead the dough, it just needs to be homogenous. It should look like peanut butter cookie dough. Now, add the chips. The mixer may spaz out a little, but eventually will blend them thoroughly throughout the dough. I find it needs the most spatula-assistance at this time. Just try to push the dough off of the actual moving parts every so often so it's actually mixing the dough. I do it while it runs, but you may need to turn it off first depending on how your dough hook(s) work(s). I don't use the bread / pizza dough style hook myself, I prefer the other heavy duty triangular shaped one that really blasts through the dough to mix everything well. I honestly don't know what its intended purpose is, but it seems preferable, because the bread dough hook can not blend the wet ingredients. I'm lazy.

I find it's usually a good idea to grease up the cookie sheet just a little bit, even if you used a full cup of fat. You don't need a lot, but these cookies will be very soft and you don't want any resistance in separating them from the pan. Normal chocolate chip cookie dough is usually pretty gooey, and must be spooned off onto the cookie sheet. The stuff you just made should be far more like peanut butter cookie dough. You must roll it into little balls (mine are usually smaller than a golf ball) and space them apart on the cookie sheet. Figuring out how many cookies to fit on a sheet may take some trial and error. Like I said, I don't measure the cookie-balls myself, but they are usually just a little smaller than a golf ball. I don't think it's a good idea to go much bigger, as they won't cook thoroughly before they begin drying out and burning in the oven.

The next step is very important. You must further apply the peanut butter cookie technique by taking a wet fork and mashing the cookie balls down a little, to about half of their original height. "Smush" each cookie twice at two different angles, and keep the fork moist by dipping it in water as you go. If you don't do this, they will be harder to bake completely. Usually they don't expand much more than another inch in diameter during baking, so use one "smushed" cookie-ball to figure out how many to fit on a sheet. I have my spacing down to a science where the end products are nearly touching in every direction, but not quite. If you're nervous, give them plenty of space to begin with, and just make more batches. You don't want a big contiguous blob of cookie, although it'd probably be salvageable.

How long to bake? Well, I put mine on the middle rack and give them anywhere from 10 to 12 minutes. Sometimes they seem to take a little longer than the basic 10. It really is pretty hard to screw these up, but overbaking them is not a good idea. You want them just to cook enough to be thoroughly baked, but not dry. Once they're done, you may want to give them a few minutes to cool down before separating them from the pan. Sometimes they are so soft you can't pick them off without breaking them. If they seem overly gooey and wet inside (in other words, they are still dough), they aren't done. If you *preheated* the oven correctly, that shouldn't be the case! I prefer to cool my cookies on racks. Some people use newspapers or grocery bags. For some reason I'm somewhat grossed out by that, and stickwita rack, yo. You don't want to cool them forever, or you'll dry the bastards out. Give them fifteen minutes or so, then seal 'em up in plastic Tupperwaretm or Gladwaretm or something similar, something that seals, damnit! I suppose a Ziplocktm bag would work. This will trap the moisture in and keep them fresh for the couple of days it takes you to eat them. I've never had cookies go moldy on me, because they never last long enough. Moist is good. I am far too spoiled on these, and haven't bought processed-food cookies (like Oreotm) in at least half a year...

Well, the nodegel surrounding chocolate chip cookies is badly fragmented, so here's all the recipes I could find:

... And some random information on chocolate chip cookies:


... And just to get my 2 cents in, here's my kickass recipe for chocolate chip cookies:

Ingredients

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375°. Cream the butter. Add the white & brown sugar, then beat until creamy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Sift the flour, then add it, the salt, and the baking soda. Add the dollop of sour cream, mix it in real well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts (if you want them), and mix them in real well. I like to go ahead and use my hands to mix at this point, because there aren't many kitchen utensils that are up to the task. Grease the cookie sheet, then use two spoons to drop the dough (like, a mounded tablespoon at most per cookie). Space them well.

Stick the cookie sheet in the oven. Take it out after 10 minutes, or when the cookies look brownish. Don't overbake them, fool!

If you find they're getting really flat (and probably dry and a bit overdone), add a bit more baking soda to the dough you've got left and mix it in really well. The leavening will make the cookies rise more, leading to less flat, better cooked and tastier cookies.


[   ] dizzy says we made your chocolate chip cookies with chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips - yum yum yum yum yum yum :-)

[   ] lj says I made your chocolate chip cookies too - they were really yummy, but I made a huge mess in the kitchen :)

This is my tried and true Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Recipe. Make sure to melt the butter beforehand, and set eggs out about an hour so that they can reach room temperature. If possible, use Mexican vanilla, the flavor difference is incredible:

2 1/2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup sour cream

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt unsweetened chocolate and butter together, stirring occasionally until smooth. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2 In a medium bowl, beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light. Mix in the chocolate mixture until well blended. Stir in the sifted ingredients alternately with sour cream, then mix in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3 Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

The invention of the chocolate chip cookie

Chocolate chip cookies (or biscuits for many people of the world), were invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield, born in the year 1905. In point of fact, Ruth Wakefield first invented chocolate chips, and went on, in probable divine inspiration, to add them to colonial Butter Drop Do cookie dough, to invent the archetypal chocolate chip cookie.

The year of invention was 1930. The place was the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, USA. The Toll House Inn was a popular place for weary travellers to stop for a night's rest, and a home-cooked meal, and had gained some considerable fame throughout New England.

Ruth Wakefield first called the baked goods Toll House Cookies, a name which has not survived her. Fatefully, she was successful in publishing a moderately successful recipe book, "Toll House Tried and True Recipes" in the year 1940. The Toll House Cookie was your basic cookie dough enhanced with broken-up pieces of semi-sweet dark chocolate.

The name of the Wakefield's inn, however, has survived. The giant Nestlé food multinational corporation purchased the rights to the place-of-invention of the world's most popular cookie, the Toll House Inn, to market a range of chocolate chip baking goods under the Toll House sub-brand.

Chocolate chip cookies should be accompanied by a glass of icy-cool milk, where-ever possible.

Ruth Wakefield passed away in 1977.

RESEARCH SOURCES INCLUDE: ENCHANTED LEARNING ONLINE, NESTLE CORPORATION

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