Jean's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

We like cookies in these parts. But generally speaking, I'm not the main cookie maker in this family. Don't get me wrong; I make plenty of sweets, but I like to experiment and try new things. Most of our faithful standbys--brownies, cookies, wacky cake--are made by Kip. However, this past Sunday I found myself home from church with a few sick kids and it just seemed like something fun to do. By that point in the over-a-week-of-sickness, I was in need of something fun to do.

When Kip makes cookies, he makes a lot. And he doesn't like to vary from the way we always do them (see that comment above about me being the one to experiment). With him out of the picture, I did it my way. And I halved the recipe. Please imagine the maniacal laughter of someone drunk with her own power. Thank you.

What is my crazy way, you may ask? And why on earth would a sane person halve a cookie recipe?

First of all, who every said I was sane, and secondly, my way isn't so very different, but it involves oat flour, which I love. Plus, that makes it healthy, right? (Public Service Announcement: The previous comment was a joke. Adding a bit of oat flour to your normal old chocolate chip cookies will not make them healthy, though it will make them more complex and tasty. Please do not serve these cookies for breakfast. Thank you.)

And I halve the recipe because I think it's fun to torture my poor husband. Just kidding. I halve the recipe because I don't like having cookies around for days. It's not good for us. We do this weird thing and we eat them all. If we save some as dough, then we eat that. If we don't eat them all, sometimes scooping dough in clumps from the refrigerator (and we usually do eat them all, though occasionally there's like a cookie and a half hanging around stale), then I feel guilty for wasting them. So I halved it. Kip does not allow this. Again, please imagine Dr. Frankenstein limping around her laboratory kitchen doing whatever she will despite the warnings/fears of others--bwahaha. Thank you.

Jean's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 18-24 (Yes, this is half what we usually make.)
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 9 minutes/batch
Cost: $1.90
(butter: .50, brown sugar: .17, sugar: .08, egg: .10, flour: .08, oat flour: .07, chocolate chips: .90)

Note: To make your own oat flour, just throw some oats in a blender and blend until flour-y consistency. Freeze what you don't use.

1 stick butter
1/2 C brown sugar (packed)
1/2 C white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 C all purpose flour
1/2 C oat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter, sugars, and vanilla. Beat in eggs.

Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix. Add to wet mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. I did mine right at 9 and thought they were perfect. Don't overbake these boogers or you will be sad--they should be just browning at the edges and maybe a wee bit on the top.

These freeze well as does the dough. You can freeze the dough as a hunk or roll it into balls and freeze it in individual serving sizes. Then you can just throw the balls onto a cookie sheet and add a couple minutes to your cooking time and voila.

PRINTABLE RECIPE