Chocolate Chip Cookies

A husband and wife team are at my home laying a new floor. It will take them three to four days. I decided that I would bake them chocolate chip cookies and serve them coffee or tea. When I was growing up, any one who worked for us would have a hearty noon meal including pie and cake for dessert. Now workers bring their own lunch and eat it while sitting in their truck. In fact, one worker told me that some home owners wouldn't even let him use the toilet. I believe that the workers in your home should be made to feel welcome and if not nourished with a meal at least treated well. Every one has a chocolate chip cookie recipe. When I scan the recipes I see the same ingredients: butter, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and of course chocolate chips. However the secret of a great cookie that holds together and yet melts in your mouth is under baking the cookie but just by a minute. You have to put together a number of variables: quality of your cookie sheets, the real heat in your oven, the size of the cookies and the baking time. For this recipe bake the cookies from 8 to 10 minutes. On my dark cookie sheet I bake the cookies for 8 minutes and on the light one, nine minutes. Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe 2/3 cup butter 3/4 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 3/4 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 2 cups large chocolate chips or chunks Beat the butter and slowly add the sugars. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture with a wooden spoon. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using two teaspoons, drop small amounts of batter onto the cookie sheets. My drops are the size of two halves of a walnut and I get 12 cookies per sheet. Bake at 350 degree from 8 to 10 minutes. You will know the cookies are baked because there will be a light brown ring around the outer edges. They will be slightly puffed but will collapse when you remove them from the oven. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes to give the cookies a chance to harden and then place on a rack to cool completely. Now try restraining yourself to just two cookies as you eat melted chocolate mixed with buttery cookie. Not so for the husband and wife team, they could eat as many as they wanted as they burnt through calories laying floor.