Chocolate chunk cookies … who doesn’t love those? I realized that I had not made homemade cookies since October! That’s almost 10 months ago. I can’t believe I haven’t had a homemade cookie in that long. Life is supposed to be for enjoying, so I decided to enjoy myself a bit yesterday and treat myself to cookies. They are my favorite treat, after all.

I chose to add walnuts to my cookies, but I wanted to toast the walnuts and I wanted to toast them so they were nice and brown, not just a little brown. This only took about 6 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Make sure to check them often and shake the pan a bit so they don’t burn.

Once they were done, I set them aside to cool.

While the walnuts were cooling, I made the cookie dough. I started by combining all purpose flour, kosher salt and baking powder to a bowl and whisking. I like to use baking powder instead of baking soda when making my cookies because they come out a little puffier. They don’t seem to fall flat when I do this, which I like. I set this bowl aside while mixing the wet ingredients in the bowl of my electric mixer.

In the bowl of my electric mixer, I creamed together a crisco butter stick, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla until creamy. I then added my eggs and beat them in. I use jumbo or extra large eggs when baking these cookies. Once the eggs were incorporated, I slowly added my dry ingredients, with the mixer on low. After the dry ingredients were incorporated into the wet ingredients, I poured chocolate chunks, dark chocolate chips and the toasted walnuts. I chopped the toasted walnuts before adding them to the mix.

I set the bowl into my refrigerator to get nice and cold. Keeping the dough cold ensures that you will have a crispy cookie, which is my favorite type of cookie – nice and crispy.

I let the dough sit in the fridge for an hour before baking. Once I was ready to bake the cookies, I dropped them by teaspoon onto the cookie sheets and baking them. Once the cookies were on the sheet and ready to bake, I placed the bowl back into the refrigerator until I was ready to make the next batch. The cookies were placed in a preheated 375 degree oven for 12 minutes. I switched the sheets half-way through, moving the top cookie sheet to the bottom rack and the bottom cookie sheet to the top rack.

These cookies were a definite winner! I put a couple bags together for Kylie to give to her friend, Kendra. I hope she likes them :)!

Of course, I saved lots of cookies for Dennis and Kylie, Dennis loves sweets even though he hasn’t had them in a couple months and Kylie’s a teenager, so of course she loves sweets.

Ingredients

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup Crisco butter flavored baking sticks (1 stick)

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

1-1/4 cups chocolate chunks

1 cups dark chocolate chips

1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Directions

1. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl and whisk. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together Crisco butter stick, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs and beat.
3. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix.
4. Stir in chocolate chunks, chocolate chips, and toasted walnuts.
5. Place bowl in the refrigerator for an hour to chill.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line your sheet pans with parchment paper.
7. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon onto baking sheet.
8. Bake for 12 minutes, checking after 10. Switch pans halfway through.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris