THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE SAGA

I didn't realize what a learning experience I was in for when I decided to make the chocolate chip cookies I had made a thousand times before back home.  I have fond memories of making them as a kid with my mom, baking them in college with friends, and preparing them each and everyday at the Bed & Breakfast I worked for after college.  Perhaps naive, but I believed that chocolate chip cookies were a universally loved treat, but after my experience trying to make them in London, I realized I had been mistaken.  Not only is the chocolate chip cookie an American tradition, but so are measuring cups and chocolate chips themselves.  It took me nearly two days make them, but after eyeballing the recipe without measuring cups (they use the metric system and weigh their food to measure it) and scouring half of London only to find the smallest and most expensive packs of chocolate chips on the face of the planet, I finally made my cookies.

THE WORLD'S BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Adapted from The Inn at Playa Del Rey

3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups brown sugar - packed
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 sticks salted butter - room temperature
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350*F

In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar, brown sugar, and softened butter together until smooth and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time until combined.  Add the vanilla.  In a smaller bowl, combine the flour and baking soda, then add these dry ingredients slowly (one cup at a time) to the butter mixture.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

{photos: Julia Ferguson}