Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you were asked to pick your favorite cookie, what would it be? I am not sure that I could really ever decide on just one. My cravings are constantly changing, and my mood always affects what cookie I want to eat.

Sometimes it is an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, heavy on the cinnamon and raisins with the brown sugar flavor bursting out of it. Then again, Nana’s Butter Cookies, the best thumbprint cookie I have ever had, are what I need to have other times. The raspberry preserves are my favorite filling, but I find it hard to pass up the blueberry and peach ones, too. Nut cookies, you wonder about? Yes, I crave those as well. Who can really say no to a Macadamia Nut Cookie or the Peanut Butter cookies with the Hershey’s kiss smack in the middle?

Yet, if there is one cookie that always has the ability to make me smile, even if it is not on my ‘current craving’ list, it would have to be the good old fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookie. No matter how happy I have been with a current (at the time) recipe, I have tried more chocolate chip cookie recipes in pursuit of finding the perfect one. I have tried putting nuts, dried fruits and different kinds of chips in, but there is just something so special about the simplicity of a straight up chocolate chip cookie, and I finally found the perfect recipe to start with.

Last summer, we went out to Park City, Utah for vacation. We stayed at a friend’s place, loving the summer activities offered in the mountains (as opposed to the year round beach life here in Florida). In the condo I found Chocolate Snowball, a cookbook by Letty Halloran Flatt who is the Executive Pastry Chef at the Deer Valley Resort. I was pouring through the book when my friend, who owns the condo, called. As we chatted he told me about this incredible cookbook that was near the stove. I told him that I couldn’t find it, and he thought perhaps someone had walked off with it. I then confessed that I was going to be the one to take it as I had not found one recipe that I did not want to make.

For those of you not familiar with Park City, it is a pretty quaint town with a main street that has various shops and restaurants on it. I went into every store that sold cookbooks on my quest to find Chocolate Snowball. No luck. Then when we went to this lovely Country French style shop, and I noticed a few shelves with books on them. I asked about Chocolate Snowball. The saleswoman told me that they had one copy sitting in back, but it had not been claimed for several weeks by the person who ordered it.

The saleswoman, who shall remain nameless to protect her identity, explained that Chocolate Snowball was no longer in print and this was the last copy in town. I begged, and she decided that I should be allowed to keep my children, whom I offered as a trade for the cookbook, and sold it to me.

I still feel like I hit the jackpot. I have made a lot of recipes out of Chocolate Snowball and have never been disappointed by any of them. Best of all, I found the ultimate Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I added more chocolate chips to the recipe because I love having a part of a chocolate chip in every bite, but the consistency and taste of the dough is right on target.

I think it would be really cruel to tell you about this amazing cookbook that is out of print without giving you the great news as well. Chocolate Snowball came out in paperback in December 2010. I have given many of these as gifts and each person has reported back that they love the book as much as I do.

Try these cookies and if you think they are as fabulous as I do, order the book. If you are anything like me, you will not be able to put it down or stop baking recipes out of it. Just give thought to whom you show your copy to. One of them may just walk off with it!