Snowstorms and Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies

Snowbound with cabin fever, my vegan daughter wanted to bake something. We didn’t have red beans for vegan brownies and of course couldn’t run to the grocery store, so I suggested My Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Remember them? I thought we could give a batch to our saintly neighbor who cleared our driveway with his snow blower, twice!

Neighbor snowplowing our driveway. Notice white snow drift on the right? There's a car buried under it!

During the blizzard in early February 2010 -- when people were stuck home as they are now -- someone posted on the Olney-Brookeville Exchange, “Does anyone have a killer chocolate chip cookie recipe they are willing to share? Or anything with chocolate in it?”  Another OBXer posted this:

My Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. 

Many OBXers tried this fabulous recipe … multiple times. One member wrote, “I think we will all need to go on a diet after this snowstorm.”

Well, my daughter’s batch didn’t make it to our helpful neighbor after all. After polishing off the cookies, I said to my husband, “Let's just get gas for him instead. Oh wait – we can’t get out of the neighborhood to buy gas.” By the time we are plowed out and can drive to the gas station, my neighbor will no longer need gas for his snow blower … until the next storm. It is only January.