Everyday Chocolate Chip Cookies are the classic chocolate chip cookies from my childhood. It’s the recipe my Mom made my entire life and in honor of Mother’s Day, I’m sharing it with you.
To perfect these cookies, be sure to use brand-specific ingredients as listed.
Some recipes aren’t meant to be changed. In fact, changing them, modifying ingredients, attempting to make them healthy, might actually be WRONG.
Case in fact: my Mom’s chocolate chip cookie recipe and what I consider, my Everyday Chocolate Chip Cookies.
When you want your mother’s chocolate chip cookies, you may be craving chocolate….but you may also be craving comfort.
And during this time of uncertainty, I’m sure we can all use a little comfort.
Some of us are away from family, worried about the future, concerned about jobs, or stressed because we’re balancing the needs to homeschooling with work, finances, and this new everyday life.
In those cases, we need some comfort. And these Everyday Chocolate Chip Cookies are just that. Comfort.
Food Evokes Memories
My mom’s chocolate chip cookies are my comfort food. I specifically remember a time in college when I came home one weekend, devastated and upset by an event that happened [something that I look back on now as trivial but at the time viewed as detrimental].
When I arrived home that morning, my mom was in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies. I sat at the kitchen table with a glass of milk, ate warm chocolate chip cookies, and cried while I talked to my mom about what was bothering me. And afterward, I felt better.
Yes, sharing my thoughts with my mom while eating her warm, fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies, made me feel better.
It’s often stated that you shouldn’t comfort yourself or hide your feelings with food – but there’s always an exception. And in those cases — like as today in this pandemic, isolating world, my mom’s chocolate chips cookies are love in the physical form.
They are comfort and they make people feel better. I mean, they aren’t magical but I’m damn sure you’ll feel better after eating them.
So when I need some comforting and I’m miles away from my mom (which is always or at least has been for the past 10 years) but yearning for her comfort and a hug – her cookies are the closest thing I get to feeling that embrace.
I’ve also learned that in order for them to truly be comforting, they need to be made using the exact same brands of ingredients she uses. Using an alternate will not deliver the same taste, love, or comfort. They’ll still be delicious, so go for it, but they won’t be exactly like my mom’s.
The Original Recipe
So, in honor of Mother’s Day this weekend, here’s my mom’s chocolate chip cookie recipe, the Everyday Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe with the exact brands you need to make them taste just like my mom’s comforting, loving hug in cookie form.
Tip from mom, for perfectly round and evenly sized cookies, use this scoop, the 1.5 tablespoon which is what’s used for making this recipe.
Enjoy, and Happy Mother’s Day.
- ½ cup butter flavored Crisco
- ½ cup Land O'Lakes unsalted butter**
- 1 cup domino Granulated sugar
- ½ cup, packed Domino light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract (brown color, not clear!)
- 2½ cups Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour, sifted
- 1 tsp Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
- 1 tsp salt [table salt, none of that fancy sea stuff]
- 12 ounces Nestle Semi-Sweet Morsels*
- 1 cup Nestle Premier White Chocolate Morsels, optional
- ½ cup chopped walnuts, optional
- Preheat oven to 375°F (I bake on the convection setting, adjust accordingly for your own oven if you do not)
- In a stand mixer, cream together Crisco, butter, sugars, and vanilla until light & fluffy (like really let the combine for 2-3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl
- Beat in eggs, one at a time.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture (in 2 - 3 additions)
- Fold in chocolate chips and nuts, if using.
- Place 1.5 tablespoon-sized mounds on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat and bake for 10-11 minutes or until lightly golden in color. (It's best to rotate the sheet halfway through baking to ensure cookies are evenly browned.)
- Let cookies cool slightly on the tray (1-2 minutes). Then move to a cooling rack to cool completely. These cookies are best eaten warm, minutes out of the oven.
- Store leftover cookies in a sealed container at room temperature for a week or freeze for up to 3 months.
** If you can't find Land O'Lakes, just be sure to use unsalted butter or if you do use salted butter, adjust the salt to ½ teaspoon instead of 1 full teaspoon.
***My mom would also, sometimes, add in chopped walnuts. If you like nuts in your chocolate chip cookies, add in a ½ cup chopped walnuts when folding in the chocolate chips.
So proud of you! Love….Your Mom!
Oh wow it looks so delicious!! <3