The Best Ever Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2025 update on this old post from 2007: 

I jinxed this cookie recipe below calling it The Best Ever.  It was a really, really good recipe. And then I got a new stove. Or a microwave. Or the butter industry changed the milk fat content in butter. Who knows? But the cookies made with MY favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe started yielding flat cookies. I think it's my stove, maybe...anyway, I had to develop a new cookie recipe, which I'm posting below the "best ever" cookie recipe.  If my old recipe works for you, then great! 

I've always wanted to write a "Best Ever" recipe. ;-) I developed this recipe by mistake. I was trying to soften the butter to make the Toll House recipe and I completely melted the butter. I decided to soldier on, but had to add in a bit extra flour, and the cookies ended up being the best ever. But I have tried making these in Florida and they flopped. I think it was the humidity. I put the name brands I use in as well for what I think might matter. People love these!

The Best Ever Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies  

by Dixie Redmond at northdixiedesigns.com

2 sticks Land O' Lakes salted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup (not packed) dark brown sugar (I use Hannaford brand)
2 eggs
2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups Unbleached King Arthur flour
1 - 2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in microwave safe bowl for 2 minutes until melted (but be careful not to scorch the butter). Remove from micro, stir in sugars. I use a Danish whisk for this and it is great. Stir in the eggs until it is really well mixed. Next add the vanilla. Mix again. In another bowl mix the flour and salt and baking soda together. Add to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until very well blended. Add the chocolate chips. Drop golf-ball sized balls onto a cookie sheet. I use a cookie scoop for this which looks like a miniature ice cream scoop. Bake batch for 12 minutes. Cool on pan for 1 minute, then remove to wire rack to cool.

Here's an image you can print or pin 

UPDATED recipe.... 

Finally Successful Chocolate Chip Cookies 

2  1/4 to 21/2 cups sifted flour (depending on egg size) 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt 

3/4 teaspoons baking powder 

2 sticks softened butter

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

Chocolate Chips  1-2 cups, your preference. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees 

Whisk dry ingredients together. 

Cream sugars and butter together. 

Add eggs and vanilla extract to butter/sugar mixture. 

Stir dry ingredients into wet. 

Drop by 2 tablespoon balls on cookie sheet. 

Bake at 375 degree for 10-12 minutes. 

Throw Out the Art-making Rules

I just finished reading "The Other Alcott", about artist May Alcott, the sister of famous writer Louisa. It was interesting to read about her struggle to become an artist, and about connections with other women artists of her time. One of the artists was Impressionist Mary Cassatt. Fictionalized conversations between women artists, based on historical letters and writings, show the challenges women artists faced in that time period. Abigail May Alcott Nieriker submitted her works to the traditional Paris Salon and was accepted. Mary Cassatt left the Paris Salon behind and threw her lot in with the Impressionists. Ah, choices! I will look for a good book on Mary Cassatt now. 

This crayon rubbing was done in  Bangor, Maine, 

from items found in walking one block.

I've always felt constrained to stay in a lane, either folk art or fine art. But as I get older it's clear that an artist can make many kinds of art and that rules don't serve the artist much at all. So I let myself explore "folk art" and make other art that has no guardrails whatsoever. Emphasis on exploration! One doesn't have to constrain the other. See?  No rules! 

Patterns & Textures of Bangor, Maine and Beyond

Patterns & Textures of Bangor, Maine and Beyond  is live on the Bangor Public Library website. Free supplies are available at the Bangor Public Library for community members to use in making  crayon rubbings in the community. The Cyr Gallery at the library will display community members' crayon rubbings as well as art pieces done on paper by the Bangor Art Society in August. 

This painting is now sold. 

I did a crayon rubbing of a manhole cover, and then overprinted on top of it using acrylic paint and a gel plate as an experiment. The above piece is 12.5 inches x 27" in size. I like letting some of the design from the crayon rubbing show through transparent layers of paint. I'm looking forward to what the community brings into the library! The city is *filled* with texture and pattern opportunities. 

Courage Chickens: No Rules

After close to 2 decades of making folk art inspired by antiques, it has been fun (and necessary!) to do some art which has no rules and can be a totally experimental. I'm not trying to make things that look like old things, but am finding ways to incorporate antique folk art motifs in experimental prints. I'm looking to combine crayon rubbings with gel printing. Using folk art chicken motifs, I'm going to make a series of Courage Chickens.  Or maybe that should say, "Courage, chicken!"  We will see what comes of this.  Maybe they will be like a scorecard for a golf game. Maybe something will come that I like enough to frame and hang on my wall. 

Courage, chicken! 

A Beautiful Art Deco Grate Crayon Rubbing

 I've been looking at the grate in this building for years and years in Bangor, Maine. Recently I decided to do a crayon rubbing of it. No building was harmed in this process.   

So this past Thursday, I took an hour to do a crayon rubbing. The Green crayon is a little more wax-y than a black crayon. I think next time I will try black. This is part of a community texture gathering project done to be offered to the library. 

If you need supplies, Gravestone Rubbing Supplies has a special kind of paper which is perfect for doing crayon rubbings. 

More to come on the community project! 

Lessons in Melting Crayons

I'm continuing my journey in melting crayons to make palm sized crayons for crayon rubbings. I did a test where I melted inexpensive crayons and Crayola brand. The inexpensive crayons work well enough in crayon form but they did NOT melt as well as Crayola crayons. If you look at the test comparison below - the cheap crayons are the ones which are kind of lumpy, and the Crayola was much smoother. As far as silicon cupcake pans go, I liked the ones that are singles not in pan form. I used an Oxo brand. My goal is to make 100, and I think I will be done by the end of the week. This is for a project with a local library. More on that to come! 

 

Real Energy Only™️

Today, when the markets were plummeting, I had a dark chocolate with my coffee. These are wrapped with pithy sayings on the inside. Today's read, "Good energy only!"  If I were making chocolates, and making wrappers with sayings printed on them, I would edit this one to "Real energy only!" 

When I read the wrapper before I edited it, a phrase my mom from Georgia used to say went through my mind: "They can kiss Ol' Maude backing up!"  My mom was a sassy and colorful character. 

There's a reason that Kate Bowler's book Everything Happens and her social media resonates with me. It's honest. It acknowledges the totality of life. Hard things happen. And to pretend they do not is to hide from reality, and perhaps miss some solutions. (Just ask AI the question "what are the pros and cons of positive thinking?")

It's true that what we think about influences our actions, and that influences our lives. But I'm on Real Energy Only™️  which acknowledges what is happening. We celebrate it or we mourn and do our best to solve problems. We don't ignore. 

There's a whole lot of reality going on right now, and we cannot ignore it.