=Chocolate Chunk-Walnut Cookies=

(chocolate chunk cookies)

This is another of my favorite recipes because the ratio of deliciousness to non-fuck-up-ability to time and effort involved is entirely in your favor. Of course, with chocolate involved, you're practically playing with house money. If you had one of those little monkeys that help quadriplegics, you could probably train it to make these cookies. They're that simple. The only thing you'd have to worry about then is that you'd have one of those cute-but-evil monkey horror-movie scenarios on your hands and you'd have to fight the little guy to the death for that last cookie. Those little bastards are tougher than they look: they'll bite off a finger without a second thought. So, all in all, it's probably better to be thankful you aren't a quadriplegic and eschew the simian help altogether. Instead, get up off your lazy ass and make the cookies yourself. Here's how:

Mix 1 cup of flour, .5 teaspoons of baking soda, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt together in a bowl. I use a bit more baking soda because I like the cookies to be softer and puffier than the crispier, harder "Chips-Ahoy" style of manufactured cookie to which we've become all so accustomed. I use about half the sugar, too, of commercial cookies, which rely virtually on sweetness alone to give the cookie any appeal  rather than the taste of oatmeal, peanut butter, or whatever the cookie is ostensibly supposed to be…in this case chocolate chip.  The result is a slightly cakier, less sweet, more "scone-like" cookie. 

In a separate bowl, mix one-third of a cup of melted butter and one half cup of brown sugar with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Add one beaten egg and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix some more. Then add the flour/baking soda/salt mix a little at a time, blending it until it forms a dough. 

To this you add your chunks of chocolate—and, if you like, as I did here, some chopped-up walnuts. Add plenty of chocolate. This isn't a Chips Ahoy cookie you're making. And seldom do you hear anyone complain, "My chocolate chip cookie has too much chocolate in it!" 

Plop down spoonfuls of this dough onto a cookie sheet and slide into an oven pre-heated to 375 degrees. 

Between eleven and twelve minutes later…..presto! Cookies! 

This recipe makes between 9 and 12 cookies, depending on the size of your spoonfuls. 

I find it better not to make too many cookies at once because the less of them there are the more embarrassed and self-conscious I am of picking one off when I go by the cookie container. One missing cookie out of ten is a lot more obvious than one cookie missing out of three dozen. That's the thinking, anyway.