Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gasp!

Yepp. I'm making something with chocolate. And it's a cookie. My two least favorite things. But it's for a good cause. Remember that New York trip I told you about? The one for my honors chorus to sing live at Carnegie Hall? Well we're having a major 12-hour bake sale simultaneously at two different locations. This is going to be huge. Our amazing choir director has created so many fundraisers for us, but she's a bit nervous about this one. She wants to make sure we don't run, and I can't blame her. So I plan on doing my darnedest to help out the best I can. I mean, you really don't have to beg me to bake!


When you make things for a bake sale, there are several factors that need to be taken into consideration:

Mass appeal: You need to choose something that appeals to most people. A rhubarb galette would throw a lot of people off their horse and cause them to shrink away. Keep with chocolate and simple flavors, but that doesn't mean you can't get a little creative!

I ate a 1/5 of this before even forming the cookies... That's a lie.
(In all seriousness though, it's the truth)

Weather enduring: This bake sale is in July. It's bound to be hot. So that means nothing that could spoil, melt easily, or anything like that.

Accessible: Example: blueberry cobbler. Not an easy thing to serve or cut into portions. Bars and cookies or loaf slices are some of your best options. However, it's always good to have whole pies stored away for those people who would like to buy one to them bring to an occasion to impress their friends.

So of the multiple items I hoped to make, I thought having one chocolate chip recipe would be a good idea to bring. Everyone loves 'em, right? I will set my foot down on one item: brownies. No. No. No. You will not see those coming out of my kitchen! Hehehe...
Also, since these are going to the bake sale, I can put in walnuts like a good chocolate chip cookie ought to have! Usually in my house it's my sister and dad who eat cookies, and neither of them will allow nuts in. They can be so small minded.

Round, dark, and crispy

Okay so these are a tad on the dark side. But I was working with someone else's oven and this is sadly what happened=( In fact I used the minimum suggestion time but found my best results were 3 minutes lower than that. So the 15- 20 minute suggestion was better at 12 minutes!

Ya burnt kid!

Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (copy-cat recipe)
from How To Eat A Cupcake

2 sticks unsalted butter, cool but slightly softened
2 cups light brown sugar
2 eggs, straight from the fridge
2 3/4 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, mix together butter and sugar on low speed until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat on low speed until incorporated.

Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake 15-20 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the tops are just lightly browned. (For smaller cookies, of course you'll need to watch them because they'll bake much faster.) Cool completely on wire racks. Store airtight until you eat them all!