Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was in seventh grade I entered junior high school and bought my lunch everyday from the school cafeteria. It took me a year of eating school lunch food to realize that I could have much better lunches, both nutritiously and taste wise, if I simply packed my own lunch. However, from time to time I still bought the chocolate chip cookies. They were the most moist, gooey, delicious chocolate chip cookie I had ever had and I couldn't help but treat myself sometimes.

Today I finally made a chocolate chip cookie that I loved, and it reminded me so much of those cookies I had back in junior high. Although they weren't gooey, they were extremely soft and biting into them left me with such a nostalgic feeling. They had the perfect amount of moisture and crumbled in my mouth. I later realized, after reading through my previous posts, that the recipe is almost exactly like that of the triple chocolate chip cookies I made in July. The only difference is that those cookies call for chocolate pudding mix instead of vanilla and also cocoa powder. After making these cookies, and recalling the soft texture of the other cookies, I have decided that I really like using pudding mix in the recipe because it makes the cookies extremely soft and crumbly. Now I wonder what other types of cookies can be made with pudding mix...

On a side note, I decided to finally learn the difference between baking powder and baking soda. Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate (my bachelor of science being put to good use) while baking powder is a mix of sodium bicarbonate, an acidifying agent (cream of tartar), and a drying agent (usually starch). What that means is that when baking soda is combined with some sort of acid, such as chocolate, yogurt, honey, buttermilk, etc., it releases little bubbles of carbon dioxide and causes your batter or dough to rise. Baking powder has the same effect, but without the slightly bitter taste that baking soda can sometimes leave behind. This is due to the fact that baking powder comes "built-in" with an acid and a base, therefore it is neutral tasting.

So what does all this really mean in terms of baking? It means that if a recipe calls for baking soda, you can substitute baking powder so long as you use twice the called for amount, because baking soda is more concentrated. However, if your recipe calls for baking powder and you don't have any...you're out of luck. That's because baking soda is missing the acid component that will help your cake, or whatever batter you are making, to rise. Also, since most recipes with baking powder usually use only neutral ingredients, and not acidic ones, your recipe won't help in the rising department either. After all this research, the moral of the story is...always make sure you have baking powder and don't worry so much about the baking soda, it's too bitter anyways.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 package vanilla pudding mix (you can try some other flavors...be creative)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugars until light and airy.
3. Beat in the pudding mix, then the eggs one at a time, and finally the vanilla.
4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet. I started by beating mine in a little at a time and then finally switched to using my hands to finish the job. It will seem like the dough is too dry because it will first be chunky but if you use your hands you can form it into a uniform dough.
5. Add the chocolate chips and work them in throughout the dough.
6. Refrigerate your dough for about 15-30 minutes. This makes it easier to shape the dough into balls.
7. Roll out 1" balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 1" apart. I rolled mine out a little bigger because I like big cookies and I really wasn't looking to make dozens of cookies. Don't worry about placing them close together on the baking sheet because these cookies don't spread at all. In fact, I flattened mine out so that they would have a disk shape rather than a ball shape.
8. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes. If you make them smaller, definitely go with 10 minutes, maybe even 8. However, my cookies were quite large, about 2", so they took about 13-15 minutes to bake.
9. Take the baking sheets out of the oven and keep the cookies on there for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool.