Early in my marriage, my husband deployed to a war zone. He lived in what was then known as the most dangerous city on the planet. I read news article after news article. I saw pictures that I couldn't un-see. And I became emotionally paralyzed by the bad in the world, by the horrible tragedy happening at that very moment, at every moment. I cried for days for people I had never and would never meet.
My son's teacher is currently using her vacation days to volunteer at a school that has been set up in a literal garbage dump in another country. There are dozens of families who have lived and worked at the dump for generations. Until recently, they didn't have enough food and clean water, much less a school or even an address. My son and I talked about his teacher and her experiences last night until overwhelmed in his grief at the apparent unfairness of the world, tears stopped our discussion.
Hurricanes, earthquakes, violence, theft, fires, hunger, disparity, prejudice, threats, floods, disasters of all kinds and losses of even more...
It IS overwhelming. It CAN be emotionally paralyzing.
I don't have answers for many of the questions my son asked last night. And I hate that. But I told him what I discovered long ago when his father was deployed -- we can care for each other. We can care for others. And sometimes more needs to be done...but you can always start with that.
It was a perfectly timely conversation. About a month ago, Bridget from Bake at 350 emailed asking me and some other blogging friends to join with her and Imperial Sugar to BAKE. Bake for friends. Bake for communities. Bake for comfort. Bake with love. (Because nothing says love and comfort quite like warm sugary goodness.) It won't solve all the world's problems...but caring for each other is a step in the right direction. So today...my children and I are going to take these chocolate-chip chocolate-chip cookies to our neighbors. We are going to tell our well-loved neighbors that we love them. And we are going to get to know the rest of our neighbors better.
If you want to join us and #giveafriendacookie .... might I suggest chocolate chip? 🙂 It never seems to be the wrong answer. I've had MANY people ask for a chocolate chip roll-out recipe. So here you go --
Chocolate Chip Roll-Out Cookies
A soft and chewy, no-chill and no-spread chocolate chip roll-out sugar cookie recipe!
Prep time: 20 MCook time: 30 MTotal time: 50 M
Ingredients:
- 1 cup slightly softened unsalted butter (227 grams)
- 1 cup packed brown sugar (200 grams)
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar (100 grams)
- 2 large eggs (100 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla (10 grams)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt (4 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (1 gram)
- 3 1/2 cups (or 4 cups) all-purpose flour (490-560 grams)
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (130 grams)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking sheets or parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and both sugars together. If you have any brown sugar lumps, you should crush them up or pull them out. (They make weird dents in your baked cookies.) If your brown sugar is especially clumpy, microwave it for about 30 seconds before adding it to the mixing bowl. It will soften it enough to blend smoothly.
- Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix thoroughly.
- Add the salt and baking powder and mix again.
- Add 3 1/2 cups of flour and mix well. Stop here if you are going to chill the dough overnight, or just wait for another day to bake it. If you are going to roll it out right away, add another half of a cup of flour and mix again.
- Gently stir in the mini chocolate chips.
- Roll out dough and cut shapes as desired.
- Bake at 350 F. If you roll to 1/4" thick, bake for about 7-8 minutes. If you roll to 3/8" thick, bake for about 10 -12 minutes.
FAQs
I ONLY HAVE REGULAR CHOCOLATE CHIPS, WILL THESE TURN OUT BUMPY? -- Try baking your cookies UPSIDE DOWN! When you flip them over, the new top will be completely flat!
MY DOUGH IS TOO SOFT! WHAT SHOULD I DO? -- If your dough is too soft, try adding a little more flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. ALSO... If it's very hot where you live and your butter was room temperature instead of just slightly softened - you might actually need to cool everything down in the fridge for 10 minutes before rolling out the dough.
MY DOUGH IS TOO DRY! WHAT SHOULD I DO? -- The two most common reasons for this dough turning out dry is:
1) Not using large eggs. It's SURPRISING what a difference that makes.
2) Using too much flour. I'm not saying you used more than the recipe calls for - but since this recipe is written by volume and not weight, you might be adding more flour depending on elevation and humidity. Next time you make this recipe, try starting with 1 cup less flour and adding flour until it's just right. But you can still save this batch too!
Luckily, the solution to both of them is the same -- Crack an egg into a bowl and whisk together. Mix a little at a time into the dry dough until the dough comes together again.
SHOULD I USE SALTED OR UNSALTED BUTTER? -- If we're talking purely about science - it doesn't matter in this recipe. It's purely a personal preference. Use the butter you normally reach for. If you know you love things with just a little more salt - use salted butter. If you are someone who generally reduces salt in recipes - use unsalted butter.
HOW MANY COOKIES WILL THIS RECIPE MAKE? -- The yield for this recipe varies. It depends on how thick you roll your cookies. I can get about 3 dozen cookies when I roll them at 1/4 inch thick and use a 3 inch wide cookie cutter.
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE DONE? -- Watch the surface of the cookie. As the dough begins to bake, the butter starts melting - creating a shiny or "wet" look on the surface of the cookie. As it continues to bake, the outside edge of the cookie will look dry and the wet spot in the middle shrinks. When that shiny "wet" spot in the middle disappears and the entire surface of the cookie is dry -- your cookies are done!
MY COOKIES TASTE DRY AFTER THEY ARE BAKED - WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM? -- It could be a couple of things.
1) You might be slightly over baking them. I watch the surface of the icing and when the shiny spot in the center looks dry instead of shiny... I know they are done.
2) You might be using a little too much flour. If your butter was too warm to begin with, the dough will seem soft, and if you add more flour to make it not sticky...it will turn out dry. OR you might be adding too much flour for the amount of time that the dough sits. - This is why the recipe has two different amounts of flour. As the dough sits, the flour continues to absorb more moisture...making the dough more dry.
HOW LONG ARE THESE COOKIES GOOD FOR? -- It depends on how they are stored, but generally you can expect these cookies to taste fresh for about 7-10 days at room temperature.
WHAT FLAVOR ICING SHOULD I USE WITH THESE COOKIES? -- I recommend trying vanilla, almond, or caramel flavored icing with these cookies! You can replace the flavoring in your regular icing recipe straight across with any of these flavor extracts.
And if you want to make the chocolate-chip decorated cookies to round things out, you can see how I made them in this video.
NEED MORE??
Check out all the other fantastic cookie recipes from fun bloggers who are choosing to #giveafriendacookie today!!
Peanut Butter Cookies from The Bearfoot Baker
Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from Baked Bree
Apple Pie Wedge Cookies from Munchkin Munchies
Peppermint Crunch Sugar Cookies from The Domestic Rebel
Pecan Chocolate Fudge Chunk Cookies from Country Cleaver
Everything Cookies from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen
Chocolate Chip Cookies from LilaLoa
Lemon Cardamom Crinkle Cookies from Fifteen Spatulas
Apple Cinnamon Cookies from Dine and Dish
Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt from A Farmgirl's Dabbles
Fall Wreath Sugar Cookie from Tikkido
Chocolate Turtle Cookies from Bake at 350
For nearly 175 years, Imperial Sugar has been helping people communicate thanks, appreciation, love, and sympathy through home-baked treats. At the heart of baking for others is the very act of giving, and Imperial Sugar encourages everyone to bake and share, both in times of celebration and in times of crisis. Together we can make someone’s day just a little bit sweeter. If you are looking for cookie inspiration, visit the Imperial Sugar website for 350+ time-tested cookie recipes.
