COVID-19 has been quite the experience for all of us. Such unprecedented times requiring us to stay home all day, for weeks and months. And then came baking.

I was really craving some chocolate chip cookies. Not the store bought cookies but some home baked, gourmet chocolate chip cookies. I was actually really craving the cookies that my friend Hedgie baked over Christmas, which had chocolate chips and walnuts. I'm not the biggest fan of nuts but I genuinely think those may have been THE BEST cookies I have ever had in my life. I knew I couldn't even get close to recreating what she baked, especially when I always considered myself more of a cooking kind of a gal and I like to just eyeball ingredients. Nonetheless, I felt an urge to want to bake so I tried 2 recipes I found online using the least amount of ingredients (I didn't want to have to spend money just to bake cookies) and found this easy to follow recipe. From this recipe, I made one batch after another, adjusting the sugar levels. To my surprise, I think I mastered my version of chocolate chip cookies. More than 15 people have tasted my cookies and everyone really enjoyed them!

- 7 tbsp of butter (salted or unsalted)

- 1 tbsp of brown sugar (= 3 tsp)

- 1/2 cup of white granulated sugar (=25 tsp)

- 1 egg

- 1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp of baking soda

- 1/2 tsp of salt

- chocolate

1. melt the butter in the oven as it's heating up (melt only 1/3-1/2 of the butter while preheating the oven to 350 degrees)

2. turn off the oven after you take the butter out (you can leave the oven on if you'd like, but i just felt more comfortable turning it off while i was waiting for the butter)

3. crush the rest of the butter so the whole thing is the same consistency (i use a rubber spatula)

4. put it in the freezer for a little bit (i didn't time this so i just check up on it to get the consistency i want) and it should not be solid but it should not be liquid

5. while waiting for the butter to cool down in the freezer, measure out the sugars (i use tsp for measurement because i lost my tbsp measuring spoon)

6. once the butter is ready, turn on the the oven so that it can preheat to 350 degrees then mix the butter with the sugar 

7. once butter and sugar is thoroughly mixed in, add the egg and mix in evenly

8. add the measured out flour, baking soda and salt into the mix

9. mix, mix, mix! it should look something like the photo below

10. time to add the chocolate of your choice

- semi sweet chocolate chips (my boyfriend liked this option better)

- bark thins (my family and other friends liked this option a lot)

-other toppings like nuts, if you want (i tried chocolate chips+walnuts and that was really good too)

*after the first few batches, i ran out of chocolate chips and i didn't want to buy more chocolate. we had these bark thins and i gave it a try. to be honest, it was excellent. and because this has sea salt in it, you don't have to add the salt. the dark chocolate is less sweet than the semi sweet milk chocolate chips, and the bits of almond also gives the cookie great taste.

11. break the pieces of bark and fold it into the cookie dough

12. place small balls of cookie dough on top of the cookie sheets on a baking pan

13. place in the oven let it cook for 10 minutes or until the tops and edges are slightly brown

14. let it sit and cool down (i like to move it to a different pan/rack to let it sit and cool off, since the pan itself is also hot from being in the oven and this was a tip i got from my friend Tao)

15. ready to eat!

I tried eating it with a scoop of ice cream when it was still soft and warm and my goodness, it was delicious. I also packed some cookies to give to my friends and family to try. They all loved it! I didn't know I could bake. Well, I can only bake cookies at this point but I guess I did impress quite a bit of people with them because some people actually said they would pay for these cookies. 🤭

I would love to know if you try this recipe, and how it turns out!