White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am the cookie maker in my family. Well, I guess that's sort of a lie because my mom and sister both make cookies too, but recently it seems that when my family has gotten together around the holidays they look forward to my cookies-- especially the ginger molasses and white chocolate chip cookies. This past holiday season was no exception. I made both recipes, wrapped them in cookie tins, and packed the tins up in our luggage we took with us on our way to Colorado.

I would be lying if I weren't to say that the white chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. When baked just perfectly, they have almost a brownie-like texture. And I always choose to use really good white chocolate (none of that Nestle white chocolate chip crap!) which I'm almost certain makes this cookie just that good. During our stay in Colorado, one bite into a chocolate cookie, my sister asked me if she could have my recipe and I promised her that I would write a blog post about them. A month passed and I still hadn't written the blog post, so finally, today, I am sharing it with you all. However, this one especially goes out to my sister!

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa (I use Hershey's)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of soft butter (2 sticks)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 pound (16oz) white chocolate (I used Lindt white chocolate bars chopped into smaller pieces or Ghirardelli white chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in baking cocoa. While continuing to mix, slowly add in flour, salt, and soda until you have a smooth consistency and the flour is fully incorporated. Finally, slowly stir in white chocolate by the handful, until it has been evenly distributed within the dough.

Once the cookie dough is ready, scoop tablespoon sized amounts of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. If you want the cookies to turn out perfectly round, I use my palms to make the dough into a sphere. Once the cookie sheet if filled, bake cookies for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, rotate the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 4 more minutes. After the 4 minutes is up, take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for two minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. I have found these times to be perfect for a moist and delicious cookie. Letting the cookies cool on the baking sheet for those two extra minutes is huge as well!

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do! Let it be known that I ate the last two while I wrote this blog post! ;)