Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, my big brother is flying back to Fort Huachuca in Arizona early tomorrow morning. I asked him if there was anything he wanted me to do before he left, like bake something. He said no, but I told him "I will anyway." ;) I might as well take this opportunity to get started on my project. We're having a big dinner with prime rib, and a couple friends are coming over, so why not do some dessert?

I figured I'd start at the beginning of the cookbook, which is, of course, the original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie. It seems sort of wrong to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch using something other than my own recipe, but I'll get over it and so will everyone else. I started getting out all the ingredients but then realized that there is a huge hunk of meat in the oven. I could go ahead and make the dough and put it in the fridge, but... I'd rather not. So I'll just have to wait until the prime rib is done to get started. Oops! xP

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Okay, so we've had dinner and I've got the last batch of cookies in the oven right now. The recipe calls for chopped walnuts, but I know a lot of people (like me) are allergic or just don't like them. I made 8 out of the 36 with walnuts, per my parents' request. Instead of chopping them I used my fingers to break them apart. After all, that's how we broke up pecans at the bakery I worked at last summer. It was kind of nostalgic breaking up those walnuts.

The cookies look good and taste good, but I very much prefer my own chocolate chip cookie recipe. This recipe is made with butter instead of shortening, so the dough is a lot more sticky, which really isn't a big deal... But after I got the cookies out of the oven, the edges were clearly done while the middles were sticky and doughy! I was afraid to move them off the pan. After the second batch was done, I put the first batch back in the oven for a couple minutes, which I think helped somewhat... I'm sure I'm just partial to my own recipe though. When I did start moving the cookies to a cooling rack, the middles kept breaking apart, making holes in the cookies. =/ Not terribly attractive...

So, for anyone else trying this recipe for the first time, I have something to say. Instead of trying to take the cookies off the pan and transferring them to a cooling rack after 2 minutes (as the recipe calls for), just leave them on the pan till they're mostly cool and set. Use a big-ass, really thin spatula (at least as big as your cookies) to move them, and only move them to whatever container you will keep them in. I'm thinking that would have prevented some of my cookies from falling apart or getting holes... Oh well. You live and you learn, right?

As far as taste, you can definitely taste the butter and salt. The texture is really soft and chewy with ever so slightly crisp edges. I can't say it's a bad recipe. It's just different from what I'm used to. =P

I'd give this recipe... 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. Not bad, Toll House, not bad.

Oh, and one other minor thing. I've counted the number of recipes (not counting "variations") twice, and the book actually has 69 recipes, not 70. So, 1 down, 68 to go!

Cheers!

~Jesia