Homemade Cookie Day

I have a confession to make.  I rarely bake homemade cookies, but we always have freshly baked cookies at our house.  When G and I were first married, homemade chocolate chip cookies were frequently made and engulfed every week or so.  Then we moved.  From that point on, we painstakingly tried to create the same cookie experience, but alas, the altitude change befuddled our efforts.  We consulted expert bakers we knew, cookbooks, information on the internet (there was a much smaller version back then), and our own ingenuity.  Nothing worked.  They either came out like cake, hardened disks, or wafers.  We needed our chocolate chip cookies, though.  That is when we discovered Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookie dough in the grocery store's refrigerated section.  Once again, we were regularly enjoying our treat.  Once we took them to a potluck party at a friend's home and were asked for the recipe.  It's a secret recipe you know...well, it is...Pillsbury isn't giving it out I'm sure. 

 

As much as we like chocolate chip cookies, we longed for some of the other cookie gems.  We each had favorites from our childhoods.  The memories of the inviting and loving aroma from each cookie as our mother's carefully pulled the tray from the oven left us desiring more.  Luckily we were blessed with a daughter, T, who was born with a gene in her DNA for baking cookies.  She can whip them out quickly and successfully every time!  Same recipes we use with very different results.

T, with her brother L and Aunt J, rolling out a batch of cookies.

T, age 2-1/2, making cookies- LOVE this picture!

Every year, G asks for her to make cookie dough for the freezer for his birthday, Father's Day, Christmas, any gift giving occasion really.  We have some gracing our freezer now.  What are our favorites that her culinary skills have offered?  All come from our Mrs. Fields Cookie Book, although you can find the recipes in a few other places.

 

Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies   recipe

Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies   recipe

Jessica's Marshmallow Clouds   recipe

 

We have other favorites like snickerdoodles (from my childhood memory), and G likes almost anything with pecans or walnuts.  G calls them his "health discs" when he is sick.  They have healing properties apparently...some are good enough that I don't believe any would doubt that belief.

 

While we sit back and enjoy our cookies, make a batch of your own.