Seminary Days Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's nothing like a good chocolate chip cookie

I have been baking chocolate chip cookies since I was a pre-teen, and using the same recipe every time that I made them.  When we moved to Kenutcky a few weeks back, I tried using my tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe, and the cookies turned out dry and not very good.  So, it was finally time to find a new chocolate chips cookie recipe.  Once again, all recipes.com came tot he rescue.  I found a recipe that I changed just a little bit to turn out super yummy chocolate chip cookies.  My dilemma was that Matt loves his chocolate chip cookies cooked with butter rather than Crisco.  It seems that whenever I use butter rather than Crisco in the recipe, the cookies come out thin,  flat, and ugly.  So, I found the secret to making chocolate chip cookies with butter still look nice--cream of tartar.  Okay, enough talk, now here's the recipe that I've come up with.

Seminary Days Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (you can use whatever flavor of baking chips that you like)

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and stir in to the batter. Sift together the salt and flour and then stir into the batter with the chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls ( I used a cookie scoop) onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Yields 48 cookies (Medium Sized) 

I hope that you all enjoy this recipe, and that it works for those of you in California.  It works great over here in Kentucky.  Happy baking to y'all.