Better Than Mrs Fields!

Some friends of mine started a new blog the other day. It’s over at Heart of the Home. Their first post is a recipe for some chocolate fudge. So, I’ll join in the recipe party!

A long time ago, my wife got this chocolate chip cookie recipe from somewhere that claimed it was the Mrs. Fields cookie recipe. We tried it, and we didn't think it matched, but we did think it was really good.

So, we developed this tradition of making this CCC recipe on a Sunday evening. Usually about once a month.

The problem was, we would decide to make the cookies, not a day or so before, but that very Sunday afternoon. So, as the wife and kids would goad me into mixing up the dough, I would check to see if we had the necessary ingredients. At least half the time we'd be missing something. Being a good little Mo’ family from the heart of Utah, we're supposed to keep the Sabbath Day holy and not go shopping. But we'd still need our cookies!

So, we'd call our friends and borrow an egg or two, or some butter, and we'd be sure to save them a few cookies. Later, we just decided to get proactive and we pretty much keep the ingredients on hand now, so we can be spontaneous, strengthen our family traditions, and still keep the faith.

Then, one day, I lost the recipe. Gone. Our family went into a tailspin! Our sacred tradition was at stake!

After a few cookieless weeks, we realized that something had to be done. So, I sat down and tried to recreate the recipe from memory. My memory is not noted for being too strong. That’s why I carry a palm pilot, because if it doesn’t get written down, it didn’t or won’t happen.

The recipe I came up with is pretty good. It’s not like the one we had, but it’s close. My wife, bless her dishonesty, claims that it’s better than the original. I think she’s just trying to make me feel nice so that I go on making the cookies on Sundays.

So, now we have a recipe for a cookie that is almost, but not quite, like a recipe for yet another cookie that is almost, but not quite, like Mrs. Fields'.

By the way, I don’t specify an amount of chocolate chips in this recipe because I have found that different people feel very differently about how many chips is proper. Some seem content to have only a few chips per cookie. Others seem to think that you make the dough and then lean over it and whisper the words “chocolate chips” into the mixer, and that’s enough.

Me, I think that the only reason you have the cookie in the first place is to hold the chocolate chips together. So, dump it all in! The more, the merrier!

Anyways, here’s the recipe:

· 2 cups of Sugar
· 2 cups of Brown Sugar (listening to the Stones sing the song is not recommended on the Sabbath)
· 1 tsp salt (which hasn’t lost its savor)
· 1 tsp vanilla (I like to use a half tsp of vanilla direct from mexico, which is always much stronger than domestic vanilla extracts and imitations)
· 1 Tblsp baking soda
· 2 Tbslp baking powder
· 4 cubes (2 cups) of butter (actually, I usually start with this in the mixer, other than that, I’ve found that it doesn’t matter what order you put things in. Also please note that this is NOT margarine. Butter. The real stuff.)
· 4 cups flour
· 5 cups rolled oatmeal
· 4 eggs
· a boatload of chocolate chips (I usually use at least two bags for this recipe)

Mix it all up. Taste the dough. Drop onto cookie sheet while eating more dough. Eat more dough while cooking for 8-10 minutes at about 375 degrees f. While it’s cooling, put in the next tray. Taste the dough to be sure that it didn’t go bad while you were waiting.

This recipe can be halved, but if you don’t you’ll have a whopping lot of great cookies to take to your home teaching families. Sometimes we'll take the leftover dough, roll it into logs, wrap it in wax paper, and freeze it. It's not quite the same as fresh when you cook it, but it's close. So, that makes it almost, but not quite as good as a cookie that's almost, but... Never mind...

If any other family-oriented blogs want to join in the recipe game, post it, and please, make sure you tell the story behind the snack. Then, link back to Heart of the Home, as the starter, and when you post a comment there, tell them Mark sentcha!


MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com