Cookies for a crowd

[aquinasprime]

There is nothing more impatient than a four-year-old who knows there are fresh cookies in the oven.

This is my mother's modified version of the old Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe that comes on the bag of chocolate chips. When I say it makes cookies for a crowd, I have in the past made 7-8 dozen + from a single batch of this recipe. The dough can be kept frozen for up to 2 months (but it never lasts that long). This was a big favorite when I was in school, especially for bake sales.



Ingredients:
3 cups plus 6 measuring tablespoons unsifted flour
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons salt
1.5 cups butter, softened
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
12-18 oz chocolate chips
10 oz peanut butter chips (optional) - I usually use a 12 oz pkg of chocolate chips and a 10 oz package of peanut butter chips; uses whatever combo you like +/- nuts; shoot for 18oz - 24 oz of stuff

Preheat oven to 375º

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture. Mix well.

Stir in chips, etc . Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, until you have made as many as you want.

Bake @ 375º for 8-10 minutes

Shape remaining dough into logs and wrap in waxed paper then saran wrap. Chill for 1 hour until firm. Freeze for up to 8 weeks.

With my four-year-old daughter "helping" I went from ingredients to 2 dozen cookies in about an hour. I tend to slightly underbake mine because I like them extra chewy.

Edited because I forgot the part about shaping the dough into logs.

Comments

Tip!

[feuervogel]

If you have space in your freezer, you can save future cookie-making time by dropping all the dough onto sheets and freezing the ones you don't bake. (They can be put closer together than if you're baking them.) Once they've turned into little rocks, you can drop them into a freezer ziploc or a tupperware and take out as many as you need the next time you make cookies.

(I've done this for everything from spritz cookies to chocolate chip, and it works brilliantly. Hat tip to Alton Brown.)

Re: Tip!

[aquinasprime]

I only wish I had the freezer space for that. But at least with these cookies, I can get a roll cut up and on a cookie sheet in the amount of time it takes the oven to heat up.

Re: Tip!

[feuervogel]

Ah, the post doesn't say to put them in a roll. The first time I froze cookie dough for later, I just froze it in a big block, which I then had to completely thaw, scoop, etc.

Re: Tip!

[aquinasprime]

Oops, forgot to add that part; fixed it now.

[redsnake05]

Those sound delicious, and I am always looking for new recipes that make large amounts and are good to freeze. I always underbake my biscuits too, and always take my cakes out just a few minutes early too. I think a dry light crumb is vastly overrated, personally.