I've sat on this recipe for awhile now and debated whether or not to put it online. Ultimately I think it needs to be shared — I've always loved these cookies. Let me tell you, this lady could cook. Some of my fondest food memories from childhood came from Nanny.
To be fair, a good bit of them also came from the other matriarchs in my family. Sunday dinners were fried chicken in Mullens, the Mills and Hollins side of my family. But spending the night so Mom and Dad could have an evening away from the kids took place at Nanny's house. Dinner was usually cheeseburgers with a ridiculous amount of cheese on top, blending into the meat to form another layer, and mayonnaise on the bun. This in itself was a treat, as my house was a Miracle Whip house. I still don't see the logic behind the Miracle Whip edict despite the passage of many many years.
Breakfast the next morning was fried eggs over medium, and bacon, sausage, or both. The eggs got cooked in the grease from the bacon or sausage, and instead of flipping the eggs over, she'd just flip grease on top of the eggs until the albumen got cooked. I thought that was a pretty neat trick. I can't flip eggs very well, but when I cook I never seem to have enough grease in the pan to do the same trick... so I end up with broken yolks.
And after dinner... cookies. Here, without further ado, is the official recipe for Nanny's chocolate chip cookies.
- 2 sticks margarine
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3½ cups flour
- 1 large package of chocolate chips
Cream butter and sugars, add eggs and mix well. Sift dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Add chips.
Place dough on waxed paper making two long rolls and refrigerate for two hours.
Bake sliced dough at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Makes five dozen.
A few notes of my own about this recipe... I've not made it in several years, but the last time I did, I didn't sift anything. The directions call for that, but I don't think it makes any difference anymore. Isn't everything pre-sifted now?
Please note the word margarine in the ingredients, but butter in the directions. Something tells me you could go either way, but the flavor will vary depending on which you use. Just a hunch here, but I bet Nanny used butter, and some would-be health-conscious individual substituted margarine in the ingredients list over the years. This is an old recipe.
I don't know what size a "large package" is, but it probably means the biggest size you can find in a normal grocery store and not the humungo dinosaur-sized bag you'll find at Wal-Mart. By the way, I do not consider Wal-Mart a normal grocery store, so don't even broach that subject.
As for the "long rolls" part, basically these are two long flat rectangles of dough about five inches across, half an inch thick, and equal in length. The cool thing is the recipe makes lots of dough, so after the dough is properly chilled, you can make a dozen cookies, or maybe 18, and have lots left over for the next day... and the next... and the next. It seems like Nanny always had this dough in her refrigerator, so it was just a matter of slicing some off and cooking it. I personally can't vouch for the five dozen count, but trust me, you're going to make lots. Nanny would slice off a chunk of dough and put it on the cookie sheet without even attempting to make a proper cookie shape, so we ended up with cookies about the size and shape of dollar bills (at least to a child's eye).
The cinnamon is a key ingredient. It gives the cookies a unique flavor without being overpowering. Don't think you can just skip it... you probably can, but you'll be missing out on something special.
Ok... that's enough from me. Give this a shot, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I always have.