Last Friday, I was informed at approximately 4 pm that we were having company for dinner. For some people, that might be OK. But I’m kind of a planner. Luckily, Nick made a trip to the store and took over the cooking (on the grill, of course). But he forgot the most important part of the meal… dessert!
I usually have a pretty stocked pantry, so I knew I had the ingredients to pull something together. But what’s the secret to soft, chewy cookies? Softened butter! And I didn’t exactly have time to let one of my rock-hard sticks soften.
I turned to my favorite Christmas cookie magazine (257 recipes!) for help. I started scanning the pages… “butter, softened,” “shortening, softened.” Grrr. Finally I came to a recipe I made for Christmas a couple years ago… with melted butter!
I love a nice chewy Tollhouse, but every once in a while I like a little crunch. And these crunchy butter cookies are the perfect solution when all you have is cold butter! Simple but delicious.
Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies
(from Taste of Home, Best Loved Cookies and Bars)
- 1 cup butter, cubed
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a microwave or double boiler. Stir in the vanilla. Cool completely. In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Stir in the butter mixture and chocolate chips.
Shape into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on ungreased baking sheets and flatten slightly.
Bake about 12 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Cool on wire racks.
The only wet ingredient in these cookies is melted butter. As I’m sure you can imagine, they literally melt in your mouth. They didn’t last very long!
I am making these cookies right now, and just pulled 1st batch out the oven. Hang on a min, I will tell you how they taste. My husband and I didn’t care for them, they are missing brown sugar to us. My daughter fell asleep n didn’t try them… On the plus side, my very picky 17 yr old did like them.