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. 

Tis the Season for Gingerbread

Tasha Tudor's grandmother's gingerbread recipe is below. I want to compare it to my own great-grandmother's recipe, pictured above. There are some similarities.  I made Great-grandma Minnie Lee's recipe a couple years back, and it tasted good.  It wasn't cake-like but quite dense. I wonder if she used self-rising flour so I will try her recipe sometime to check that out. Her children loved the recipe above. 

Tasha Tudor's Grandmother's Recipe: 

Makes 24 servings

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 farm-fresh egg, beaten
• 1 cup light molasses
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 1/2 cups dark raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two iron cornbread pans (12 pieces each) or, if you do not have cornbread pans, two 9 ¥ 9-inch square cake tins.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and the molasses, then sift in the dry ingredients and mix the batter well. Add the hot water and beat until smooth. Stir in the raisins.

3. Fill the prepared tins or pans half full, place them in the preheated oven, and bake the gingerbread 25 to 30 minutes, or until done.

Dixie's Mistake Mac-n-Cheese

I had said I was going to make my Mom's Mac-n-cheese for Easter dinner. It's an excellent recipe, and many people online have tried it and made it their go-to recipe. 

Unfortunately, the canned milk I had was beyond the best-buy date, and it looked off, so I had to scrap that plan. I *did* have regular milk, though, so tried to add some ingredients to recreate the creaminess of the canned milk. I figured *more cheese* and a little butter might make a difference. My sister said it was good, so I wrote down what I think I did and will try to make it again sometime.

Dixie's Mistake Mac-n-Cheese

5 cups milk 

2 cups Velveeta cheese, cubed 

1 cup grated fresh Parmesan

1 and 1/2 cups of grated Colby-Jack

Pepper 

1 pound cooked pasta (medium shells)

Ritz crackers and/or saltine crackers, crushed (around a sleeve's worth)

1/4-1/3 cup melted butter. 

1. Grease an oblong 9 x 13 glass baking dish. 
2. Bring large pot of water to boil and cook shells according to instructions. 
3. While the pasta is cooking, heat the milk over low-medium heat, stirring constantly, until all the cheese is melted and it is a sauce. 
4. Drain pasta, then pour back in pot, OFF HEAT. 
5. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and stir until very well combined so that sauce is inside all the shells. 
6. Let pasta cool somewhat in the pot so it is NOT boiling hot (15 minutes or so).
7. Pour pasta and sauce into greased glass pan.
8. Mix crushed cracker crumbs and melted butter together well. 
9. Sprinkle cracker crumbs evenly on top of the macaroni and cheese
10. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes, until the crumbs are browned and crispy. 

Mom's Famous Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

My mom was a superb cook. It was a connection point for her. If she heard you weren't feeling great, she would start cooking.  She LOVED to see her grandkids devour her Mac-n-cheese at family gatherings. Mom passed away last year.  I am so glad that I wrote down her recipe and took pictures of her making it. She wouldn't let me take a picture of her face because "my hair doesn't look good today". I shared this recipe on Facebook and a number of Facebook friends made it. It's now their go-to recipe for Mac-n-cheese. 

Carolyn Mosley Williams Famous Mac-n-Cheese

1 - one pound box big macaroni, cooked 

4 cups canned milk

2 cups Velveeta

1 cup fresh grated parmesan

Salt and pepper to taste

Bread crumbs, tossed with butter. 

=============

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put milk and cheese on low heat on stove in saucepan until cheese melts. Stir frequently. 

Pour over cooked macaroni. 

Note from Mom:  "I always add extra milk after it sets for awhile if it's too thick.I like it creamy.Then I put bread crumbs on top.It thickens when you cook it."

Put buttered bread crumbs on top.

Cook till crumbs brown and its ready.

1941 Recipe Contest

1941 Clipping from American Weekly Housewife's Food Almanac

While going through pictures I took of my great-grandmother's recipe box this clipping from 1941 caught my eye. Recipe Contests were not a new thing.  So many of Grammy Grace's recipes had names attached to them, such as "Hermits - Mrs. Freese" or "Hannah Thompson's Rolled Oat Cookies."  In "How National Cooking Competitions Changed the Way We Talk About Recipes", Sarah Baird links cooking competitions to women's quest for autonomy. 

"Cooking became a means of celebrity for women, and to that end, a celebration of not only their creativity in the kitchen, but the pure, adrenaline-pumping pleasure of competition. 

Cooking morphed into something that was—quite literally—valuable for women, putting cash in their hands and fire in their bellies. Without even knowing it, national recipe competitions became a quietly feminist act."

In 1941, a $5 win in a recipe contest would be the equivalent of almost $100 today. In 1941, married women with children didn't often work outside the home, so these competitions offered a way to make a good thing happen in life, if not a living. But a win like this might offer something else for women of that time - that they independently had worth in the world. And that "women's work" had value outside the home. 

Here are the cookie recipes by Mrs. Freese and Hannah Thompson. Mrs. Freese and Hannah Thompson, 80 years later, I salute you! 

Chicken and Sausage Gnocchi Soup

 Chicken and Sausage Gnocchi Soup

The guys in my house like this and one of my son's friends ate 7 snack bowls of it. I use homemade broth. You can adjust depending on what you like.  I usually make this a day ahead, let cool, then reheat in a crockpot the next day.  It thickens up a lot. 

Ingredients:

3-4 ribs celery diced

3-5 cups diced carrots

2-3 onions chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil 

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 tsp dried basil

1-2 tsp dried oregano 

12 cups chicken broth

4 to 6 cups chicken, chopped

2 precooked Old Neighborhood Hot Italian Sausage, diced and sautéed until browned 

1 can evaporated milk

(If you like it more milky, add another can of evaporated milk and reduce chicken broth)

Two 17 oz packs of potato gnocchi 

2-3 precooked red potatoes, chopped with skin

4-6 cups of rinsed chopped spinach

Saute veggies in olive oil until onions are translucent. 

Add chicken broth, chicken and dried herbs.

Cook on simmer for around 20 minutes.

 

Bring to boil, add gnocchi.

Take a little of the hot broth and stir into the condensed milk.This keeps the milk from curdling.  

Once gnocchi is floating on top, slowly add milk, stirring as you pour milk in.

Add chopped cooked potatoes with skin on. Simmer for a little while before cooling. 

5 minutes before serving, add chopped spinach, heat until it is wilted.  

Serve.

Tortellini Stew

Repost, because I'm making this tonight. 

It's a great recipe! 

Tortellini Stew

Group 1 Ingredients:

1 pound Italian Sausage sliced (I cook this in oven then slice)
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced

Group 2 Ingredients:

5 cups beef broth (or chicken)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cooking wine (I use red wine)
2 cups tomatoes, chopped
(OR a can of your favorite stewed tomatoes)
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
8 oz. can tomato sauce

Group 3 Ingredients8 oz. tortellini (your choice)
3 T fresh parsley, chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 or 2 medium zucchini, coarsely chopped.


1. Brown Group 1 ingredients until onions are translucent.
2. Add Group 2 ingredients to onion/sausage/garlic mixture.
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. I usually add the zucchini and green pepper at this point.
4. Add group 3 ingredients to stew, simmer until tortellini is done.
5. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and bread.

Don't try to stick your camera into the pot for a closeup.

Excellent Haddock Recipe and a Good Story

A friend sent me the recipe below in an image form.  I don't know where she got the image. I Googled the name of the recipe, and it led me to this blog post called Seasoned with Kindness on the ZestMaine.com site.  The blog post accompanying the recipe is as nice as the recipe! 

I might adjust this some because of dietary concerns.  My husband told me to make this a LOT. 

Honeycup Haddock by Trish

Serves 4

1½ sticks butter
2 cups breadcrumbs or Ritz crackers made into crumbs
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion salt
¼ teaspoon pepper (chili, black, red or cayenne or a combination)
1 pound haddock
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 jar Honeycup mustard, or equivalent

Melt butter and mix with cracker or breadcrumbs.
Mix in seasonings.

Cut haddock into medium pieces and place in buttered casserole dish. Squeeze lemon juice over fish and immediately spread entire jar of Honeycup mustard over the fish, coating thoroughly. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over fish, coating fully.

Bake at 350°F 20–25 minutes, until fish is flaky in the middle.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Good for a snow day!

The LIME is a must in this soup!

So use this recipe as a guideline,
and start off with only one chipotle pepper
from the can unless you have an iron stomach.

This soup gets better on Day 2 and Day 3.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1-2 tsp. ground cumin

1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

1 –  one finely chopped chipotle Pepper from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce 

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups whole kernel corn

1 cup shredded carrots

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 boneless chicken breasts,

cooked, and chopped into bite sized pieces

juice from ½ lime

salt to taste

sliced avocado

shredded Monterey jack cheese

chopped green onions

In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, cumin, tomatoes, chipotles, adobo, grated carrots and broth. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir in corn, green chilies, beans, cilantro, chicken and lime juice. Simmer for 20 minutes or longer. Taste and add salt if needed. 

At this point I put the soup in a crockpot on low for several hours. I have a crockpot that lets me sauté veggies in it, so I can do the whole recipe in the crockpot.  Then I let it cool, refrigerate and reheat it the next day, because this is how my husband prefers it. 

Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese and chopped green onion.

Yield: 8 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

See other recipes I recommend at

my Recipes board on Pinterest.

Day 17: Caribbean Pumpkin Soup

Martha Stewart had a minor gripe about bloggers in which she downplays the expertise of bloggers. She says:

“Who are these bloggers? They aren’t trained editors at Vogue magazine. They are bloggers writing recipes that aren’t tested. That aren’t necessarily very good or are copies of recipes that really good editors have created and done. Bloggers create a kind of, uh, popularity, but they are not the experts and we have to understand that."

ex·pert

   adjective \ˈek-ˌspərt, ik-ˈ\

having or showing special skill or knowledge 

because of what you have been taught or what you have experienced

I found this very interesting in light of the fact that many companies with EXPERTS STEAL the designs and recipes of individual artists and bloggers.   See this link where Mimi Kirchner's work has obviously been ripped off.

http://abigailbrownscreatures.blogspot.ca/2013/10/cody-foster-design-theft.html

In terms of recipes, I consider the expert the person who can make the recipe in the average American home with the average stove, and grocery store ingredients that aren't flown in from the far corners of the earth. 

What does this has to do with dollmaking?  I think you can learn a lot from people who don't claim to be experts.  Hang out in doll groups and watch conversations amongst those who are still learning, the experts-in-training. They will discover things that the experts might not.  

Read All the 31 Days of Doll Making posts here. 

A Tried and True Soup Recipe

I think the original was from (gasp) Family Circle in an article about using canned goods. I don't do that.

Caribbean  Pumpkin Soup 

 1/3 cup each chopped onion and red bell pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin (or 1/2 tsp curry and 1/2 tsp cumin)
2 1/2 cups fat-free reduced sodium chicken broth OR homemade broth
1 15 oz. can 100% pure pumpkin puree OR baked squash
1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper.

1. Coat a medium saucepan with nonstick spray, heat over medium heat.

2. Add onion and bell pepper and saute' about 5 minutes until veggies are tender. Stir in garlic and cumin and cook 1 minutes. Stir in broth,pumpkin puree', beans, tomatoes and saltt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors.

Now here's what I do differently. I usually cook a chicken before I'm going to make this, and make stock. Or I buy an organic rotisserie chicken and make stock.  But there are plenty of good canned/boxed stocks in the super market to use if you don't want to do this. I use "buttercup" squash instead of the canned pumpkin. It's got a more complex flavor to me. Microwave the squash whole for about a minute or so, and then cut in half. Be sure to scoop out seeds before baking. Usually I bake it cut side down in a 400 degree oven, but this time I microwaved the squash, cut side down on a plate (uncovered) for about 8 minutes or until it's very soft. I do this the day before I make the soup. I usually double this recipe because it's so yummy.

And I usually cook it longer than 10 minutes to blend flavors, I let it simmer on very low heat  a an hour or so while I do other things in the house :-)

Dixie's French Dip Sandwiches

I rarely share recipes here, but I wanted to share the one I made yesterday so that I can find it again. I will surprise you next week with a post about ART.

On Thursday I made a Balsamic Pot Roast recipe. It was all right. Too balsamic-y, and missing some onion flavor. I made it because of the fabulous photo the blogger used.

I decided to try again on Friday, and looking at several recipes, came up with this combo, which is very good! The bread is important, these rolls are made by the Brick Oven Bangor Rye Bakery and are my favorite rolls to buy.


Dixie's French Dip Pot Roast 
in the Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

Chuck Roast
Lowry's Seasoning Salt
4-5 onions, sliced in thick slabs

Ingredients for Sauce for Cooking:

1 cup low sodium beef broth reduced to half by boiling on stove
Two Pinches dried rosemary
Two pinches ground sage
Two pinches thyme leaves
Bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1/3 cup of good balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons low sodium Worcestershire sauce
1 - 2 tablespoons honey
A teeny squirt of Syrachi hot sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)
A teeny squirt of dijon or brown mustard
3 cloves of garlic, chopped

Sprinkle Lowry's seasoning salt on the roast top and bottom. Then brown the roast in a skillet on both sides till the meat is mahogany colored. I did this on medium high in a cast iron skillet.

While the roast is browning, boil the beef broth until it is reduced in volume by half.

Cut onions into thick slabs and place on bottom of crockpot or slow cooker. You can leave them in slabs, or break them apart into rings.

When roast is browned, put in on top of onions in the crockpot. Add the bay leaf.

Mix the rest of the ingredients into a sauce and pour over the meat. Set the crockpot to LOW, cover it and do other stuff for 7-9 hours.

Remove meat, shredding with two forks. Pour juices into a liquid fat separator, and save the juices, discarding the fat. Put on Brick Oven rolls with Gouda cheese and your choice of condiments and some of the juice to dip the sandwich in.

Serve with a salad and this wonderful Green Goddess Dressing, but substitute plain greek yogurt for the sour cream to save on calories.

New Year's Eve Cooking: Baked Sweet Crusted Coconut Onion Rings

First, I made this Baked Coconut Shrimp recipe from Skinnytaste.com.  It was delicious and easy.  My husband liked it a lot.  I like baby shrimp but not big shrimp, so I left that to him.

With some panko crumbs and coconut coating left over, I decided to try making baked onion rings.  It was a little bit of fly by the seat of my pants after looking at this recipe and this recipe for baked onion rings.  I tried the second recipe, but couldn't get the coating to stick to the onions.  So I tried again...

My photography skills could be a bit better....

But they were really good and crunchy.

Baked Sweet Crusted Onion Rings

1 large onion (I used an organic yellow onion.

3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used Grey Poupon)

1/3 cup wings sauce (I used Budweiser Mild and Tangy, use more or less or hotter according to your taste buds)

2 to 3 tablespoons honey

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup panko crumbs

1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

salt and pepper to taste

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2.  Coat a sturdy baking dish with olive oil.

3.  Combine the mustard, wing sauce and honey together well in a large bowl.

4.  Mix together the panko crumbs and the coconut into another bowl.

5  Beat the eggs in a bowl big enough to dip onion rings into.

6.  Slice the onion into 1/2 inch thick slabs.

7.  Separate slabs into rings.

8.  Drop the rings into the sauce and toss till well coated.

9.  Put the 3/4 cup of flour into a large zip baggie.   

10.  Put the onion rings into the baggie with the flour, letting the excess sauce drip off. 

11.  Shake the bag until all the onion rings are well coated with flour.

12.   Dip each onion ring individually in the egg misture, then carefully roll it in the panko/coconut coating.  

13.  Place onion rings an oiled baking sheet.

14.  Bake at 450 for 5-7 minutes, turn, then bake another 5 to 7 minutes until golden brown.   Serve with your favorite condiment. 

The Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe

This year we are traveling to my in-laws for Thanksgiving, and I will be making the pumpkin and apple pies. In my opinion, the One Pie Pumpkin Pie Recipe is the BEST. It doesn't have any flashy ingredients. No fresh ginger flown in from Jamaica. But it's good. One thing I do, because it's how my father-in-law likes it, is to add extra molasses. Any Mainer knows everything is better with a bit of molasses. That comes from the days when sugar was hard to come by and molasses was plentiful. I am tempted to use some fresh squash in the pumpkin pie recipe. But I'm afraid I'll ruin the pie, so will experiment on my own family on another day.

I may try something new for the apple pie. I've been trolling the recipes at All Recipes and searching out the 5 star ones with hundreds of reviews. It's fun. I'm making a butter crust instead of a shortening crust. We'll see how that goes!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!