Trouble, or Mindy Taylor's Chocolate Chip Cookies

The failures of the past few days was starting to get to me. I can only eat 40 calorie bread sandwiches for so long before I crave something delicious and filling. And comforting. So, Audrey and I made chocolate chip cookies this morning. Such a mistake because I cannot even tell you how many I ate. Less than in this picture, but still more than the two I should have eaten.

Chocolate chip cookies are my trigger food. Do you have a trigger food? If you do not know what I am talking about, it is a food that if you eat one, you will eat a million and then move on to something else equally unhealthy. Fortunately, I do not have anything in my house that are equally unhealthy,except for single serving Cheetos. And those are not a temptation for me. I love them, but I'm not tempted by them.

When we were in medical school, we meaning Neil, I was still learning to cook. All of my friends were amazing cooks, so I asked them to teach me their recipes. These cookies came from Mindy Taylor, a girl whose friendship was so valuable at that stage in my life. I think of her every time I make these cookies. This is one of the few recipes that I can make without looking at the recipe, even though I still do. (Back in high school, my friend Nicole and I made cookies and mistook the amount of sugar for the amount of salt. Ever since then, I have been a measure twice, pour once kind of girl.)

Here are some things that are critical to the success of the cookies:

• room temperature unsalted butter, use organic sugar (although the recipe does work well with Stevia, but that calls for half the amount in the recipe so check the bag)
• use real butter or at least I Can't Believe It's Not Butter in a baking stick-don't use margarine (who uses margarine anymore? You should use I Can't Believe It's Not Better Light spread...)
• you can use generic pudding mix, it won't make a difference, same with vanilla
• make sure your baking soda is fresh
• put the completed cookie dough in the fridge for at least a few minutes before you put it on the cookie sheet
• be prepared to get your hands dirty: roll each cookie into a small ball, usually 1-2 inches in diameter because this makes such a beautiful cookie with beautiful edges
• use a Silpat to keep the bottoms from browning before the rest of the cookie is done baking
• please note that this cookie dough is better than Pillsbury or Toll-house slice-and-bake cookie doughs could ever dream of being. You will want to eat all of it. Allow a bite for checking that the salt is well-mixed, but that's it. There won't be any left for cookies otherwise.
• add the flour a little at a time because if you add too much at once, the flour will fly everywhere (ask me how I know this)
• buy the Butter Crisco in the bricks because you can just slice off the 1/4 c with a sharp knife, put the lid back on and go forward with the cookies. If you had to get a measuring cup, fill it with crisco, then scoop it out, then try to clean the measuring cup, you will hate making these cookies. (If you have to do it that way, make sure to use the 1/4 c to measure the flour and sugar first, into different bowls please, so that you can get the crisco last.)

2 1/4 c flour (I used unbleached white flour)
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 c packed brown sugar
1 (3.4 ou or larger) package instant vanilla pudding mix
3/4 c butter (1.5 sticks)
1/4 c Butter Crisco shortening
1/4 c white sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butters and sugars on 6 in your stand mixer. Add pudding. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Separately mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture by 1/2-1 c into the batter. Mix on low after each time you pour. When you are done adding all of the dry ingredients, turn the mixer up to 4 to really combine the cookie dough batter. Add however many chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or milk choc chips as you want. I don't always use an entire bag. Sometimes I do. Cook on the prepared cookie sheet 10-12 minutes until the cookies are light brown.

Variations: Use Andes Mint Chips and then melt Andes mint chips over low heat on the stove until melted. Drizzle the melted Andes Mints over the warm cookies. Cool before eating.

BTW, Neil is on call tonight and I spent my afternoon studying, carpooling, debating on FB, and worrying about this govt shut-down. In other words, there was no way I was going to cook tonight. (I was even proud of myself for cooking last night because Zach got a stripe on his Ju-Jitsu belt and we always go to Chili's to celebrate. I stood up for eating at home, even though the kids were disappointed. I was more disappointed when my meal didn't turn out.) So tonight the kids ate Mickey shaped nuggets and green peas while I had a Lean Cuisine meal. Oh, and cookies.