The Mom Life: 12 Days of Christmas..Cookies! Day 1 -- A Classic!

I am so happy (and very thankful) to be able to say that this is my third year to get to do 25 Days of Christmas …. In Cookies! The last two years I’ve baked one kind of cookie each day as part of my 25 day celebration. It usually gets pretty hectic as the days go on and I usually get a little behind at one point or another. J But it is always a lot of fun.

I actually had someone ask me about the upcoming cookie madness a couple weeks ago – because we like to share our multitude of cookies. J This year, due to some life events that happened at the beginning of the month, I’m cutting the number of days down from 25 to 12.

So this year I am happy to present the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies! To kick off the fun, I’m baking a classic. This cookie has given me so many headaches over the years that I’ve always fallen back on using a recipe. It sounds crazy but I have never been able to come up with my own recipe for this cookie. Until this year! I made a recipe all my own and it turned out perfect! They taste so delicious to me, that it rivals the Pillsbury refrigerator-roll-of-dough cookies that I made the other day (don’t judge). Without further ado…..

My Chocolate Chip Cookies!

For today’s cookie adventure I had my youngest helper with me. J After we had some yummy homemade hot chocolate, we got to work. (The recipe is at the bottom of the post.)

We started by whisking the dry ingredients together. Then we moved over to the mixer to cream the butter and then we added the sugars, then the eggs and oil.

Then it was time to add the flour mixture into the butter mixture. I think this was my favorite part of our time together. Abby had brought a stack of her books in to the kitchen to read the steps to me. J I thought that was so cute! My girls really get into baking. While we were standing at the mixer adding in the flour mix, Abby had a book laid open on the counter. (The book she had out was “If I Could Keep You Little”….I can’t get through reading this book to her without getting choked up.) She started out reading the “steps” for what we needed in the recipe and the steps we had to follow. Somewhere along the way, the pictures took hold of her attention and she began reading the story quietly to herself. J

Abby’s chocolate radar started kicking in and she closed up her book. She knew it was getting close to the time to add the chocolate chips. J So we added the vanilla extract and then took the bowl down from the mixer. My little helper called dibs. Haha

Then we mixed in the chocolate chips. Abby, of course, had to “test” some of the chocolate chips. J Then we scooped the dough onto the cookie sheet.

Abby thought the cookie scoop was the neatest thing. After we popped the sheet into the oven, Abby sat on the counter and worked on figuring out the cookie scoop.

First figuring out how it works.

Now she's trying to scoop some out one-handed.

One-handed wasn't working for her, so she tried using two hands. :)

After 10 minutes of waiting, the cookies came out!

Once the cookies came out and cooled down a bit, we had to do a quality check. I’m glad to say they passed. J

Look at the gooey chocolate! mmmmmmm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now it's time for the recipe!

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Dash ground nutmeg
½ c. unsalted butter, softened
½ c. dark brown sugar
½ c. light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or with parchment paper; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set the bowl aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter. Add in the sugars and continue beating on a slow speed. As the sugars become incorporated with the butter, increase speed to medium for a minute or two. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally.

Add in the egg and oil and continue beating on low.

With the mixer still on low, slowly and gradually add in the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.

Once all of the flour has been completely mixed in, beat in the vanilla extract. As soon as the vanilla has been fully incorporated, stop mixing. You don’t want to over-mix the dough.
Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon onto the prepared baking sheet by rounded tablespoons (or a super handy-dandy cookie scooper! J ).

Bake at 325 degrees F for 10 minutes. When you remove from the oven, you want the cookies to look like pillows of fluffiness. They will look almost raw, with maybe a touch of golden brown color around the edges.