Sally's Chocolate Chunk Cookies
My high school biology teacher Mr. Bliss (that was really his name) used to make us write down one nice thing we had done for society every Monday before we got on with our biology lesson. He called this a random act of kindness and he indeed was one of the most kind-hearted people I have met. Sometimes people would struggle—they couldn’t remember anything nice they had done—and dear old Mr. Bliss would scold, in the sweetest way, “well get out there and put some goodness in the world!”My favorite variety of random acts is in the form of freshly baked chocolate chunk cookies. It’s amazing how much more pleasant flights are when you give the flight attendants cookies or a bar of chocolate. This started when I was quite young, because of the culture I was raised in, I can’t eat in front of another person without offering them what I’m eating. I come from a long line of feeders. So I was on a flight from Madrid to Berlin with my brother. I was living in Spain at the time and he had come to visit me; his good friend was living in Prague and we decided to meet in Berlin. It was one of those cheap flights where they don’t offer snacks and charge you for everything, I’m convinced they’re going to start charging you to breathe soon. Consequently, I had packed snacks (read: chocolate). I gave some to my brother who was seated next to me and then the flight attendant who happened to be walking by. He was somewhat surprised but I guess I didn’t look like the type of person who would poison him, so he took a piece and I encouraged him to take more, he did and with a smile went about his duties. He came back a few minutes later with a whole platter of goodies—chips, candies, drinks—and deposited them on my seatback table. My brother looked at the pile of food and then at me and up to him and then back to me. “Of course,” he said with a roll of his eyes. (This has always been his response to me when somebody does something nice to me and not to him.)“Aww, thank you!” I said, beaming. The flight attendant made some comment about how most people have attitudes while flying and I had made his day. Well how easy was that? I decided then that I would make this practice, in preparation for a trip—in addition to making sure I have single dollar bills to tip all the people that help me along the way—I would buy a few bars of chocolate for sharing. Or bake cookies!The recipe below is for chocolate chunk cookies. A friend of a friend is a pastry chef in San Diego and shared a similar recipe with me. I have, over the years, made some adjustments making it mine and am sharing it with you.
Sally’s Chocolate Chunk CookiesHeat oven to 350°F.
- 3/4 cup Trader Joe’s Organic sugar
- 3/4 cup Trader Joe’s Organic dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 12 oz. bag Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chunks
Cream sugars and butter until light and fluffy. I do this in a standup mixer, if you don’t have one, a hand mixer will do just fine.Add egg and yolks, one by one. Add vanilla and mix well.In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.Add half of the flour mixture to sugar/butter/egg mixture. Mix until incorporated. Then add the remaining flour and mix really well.Stir in the chocolate chunks.Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Portion in tablespoonfuls and bake for 15 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE!Let sit on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.*note: it helps to let dough chill for 30 minutes before baking