Best Cookies Ever: Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter and Cherry Cheesecake Cookies

Recently, Toll House announced a recall on their refrigerated cookie dough, due to e-coli contamination. This recall includes ALL varieties of Toll House refrigerated cookie dough. Consumers are warned not to eat raw cookie dough, and that in this case, even cooking the dough will not help. Anyone who becomes ill after eating these products should see their doctor. It is also important to note that this recall does NOT include other toll house products, like pre-baked cookies, or chocolate for baking, such as their pre-packaged chocolate chips.

So what are you supposed to do when you need those cookies for a bake sale, or a party, or some other gathering? There's a simple solution, and it's even tastier than the refrigerated cookie dough variety-make your own! I'll share with you my recipes for my favorite chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and even my recipe for cherry cheesecake cookies!

To make things easier, I use a stand mixer, and I line my pans with parchment paper. The parchment paper not only makes for super easy cleanup of pans, but it also allows me to transfer cookies from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack easily, and keeps my cookies from sticking to the pan! A baking stone is another great option for baking cookies, my husband prefers this method. Cookie sheets by themselves are usually a last resort for me, but the only kind I use are the restaurant grade sheets, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Amco-Food-Service-Half-Sheet/dp/B00188AJN6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1245597454&sr=8-1

If you don't have a stand mixer, a regular old mixing bowl and hand mixer will do the trick, it just takes a bit more elbow grease, and you generally have to work in smaller batches. Another very important tool to have is a scooper. A medium sized portion scoop, like an ice cream scoop, but smaller, makes portioning cookies a snap! I use a Pampered Chef Medium Scoop. The cookies will bake more evenly since they are all the same size, and there won't be any fighting over who gets the big cookie!

For chocolate chip cookies, I use either Ghirardelli chocolate chips, or Toll House. I find that spending the few extra cents on quality chocolate makes a big, BIG difference! You will need 2 ¼ cups of unsifted flour, 1 tsp of baking soda, ½ tsp of salt, 1 cup (or two sticks) of butter, slightly softened (JUST soft enough to mix!), ¾ cup of sugar, ¾ cup of packed light brown sugar (light or dark doesn't really make a difference, but the light brown sugar yields a more pleasant appearance in the finished product), 2 eggs (large) 2 ¼ tsp of vanilla (REAL vanilla extract, don't use imitation), and a 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips. You can use slightly more or less chocolate chips, depending on your preferences. You could use any flavor or type of chip in this recipe...white chocolate, peanut butter chips, swirled chips, or even chocolate chunks!

You should preheat your oven to 375°F. Then combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl, and set it aside. Cream together the sugars, eggs, vanilla, and butter, then blend the dry mixture into that a little bit at a time. Stir in the chips of your choosing. This is the important part now. Put that bowl in the fridge for a couple of hours, or the freezer for a few minutes. You want the dough to still be soft enough to scoop, but also cold, and firm. Place the bowl of cookie dough in the fridge to keep chilled while you are baking a batch. Once this step is done, use the portion scoop to place scoops of cookie dough on to the lined baking sheet, and bake for about 10 minutes. The length of time will vary depending on your oven, how large a scoop you used, and how you like your cookies! Start checking them at 9 minutes, and keep baking, checking every 2 minutes or so until they are the way you like them. Once you've got the cookies baked to the consistency that you like, transfer them to a cooling rack to cool off. These cookies will disappear fast, so it's usually best to make a double batch! This recipe will yield about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size of the scoop you used.

For peanut butter cookies, you will need the same equipment. The ingredients you will need are 1 cup of peanut butter (just like the chips from the previous recipe, don't skimp...buy GOOD quality peanut butter!), ½ cup of softened butter, ½ cup each of white sugar and light brown sugar, 1 large egg, 1 ¼ tsp of vanilla extract (again, use REAL vanilla, not imitation!), 1 1/2 cups of flour, ¾ tsp of baking powder, and ¼ tsp of salt. If you want, you can add a couple of small bags of Reese's Pieces candy to the recipe, but I like them the old fashioned way! Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl, set aside. Cream together the butter, sugars, and peanut butter. Add the vanilla, and egg one at a time. Then gradually mix in the flour mixture. Chill this dough as well. Use the scoop to portion the cookies, and make a ball and roll in some white sugar lightly, then use a fork with long tines to make the criss cross pattern that is traditional, OR press lightly with the bottom of a glass to flatten. You could also just scoop them like a regular cookie onto a lined baking sheet, and bake at 375°F. Start with 7-8 minutes, and go from there, again the time will vary depending on your oven and how you like your cookies!

These last cookies are definitely not traditional, but they are always a big hit. They are a great cookie for a more "grown-up" affair. Cherry cheesecake cookies. You will need ½ cup of cream cheese, ½ cup of slightly softened butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg, ¼ tsp of salt, ¼ tsp of baking powder, and 1 ¼ cups of flour, ¼ tsp of Vanilla extract. This will make a plain cheesecake cookie. To turn them into yummy cherry cheesecake cookies, chop up a small jar of maraschino cherries. Mix the baking powder, and flour in a bowl, and set aside. Beat together the butter and cream cheese, and then gradually beat in the sugar at a medium speed. You want the mixture to be light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and the salt next. Add the flour mixture slowly to the cream cheese mixture, then stir in the cherries. Chill this mixture. Scoop the dough onto lined cookie sheets. These cookies are delicate, so parchment lined sheets are best in this case. Bake at 350°F until the edges are just barely brown. Cool these on a rack. This recipe will make a slightly thin cookie, but they are delicious! You could even garnish with icing if you like.

Those are my three favorite cookie recipes, and I never seem to have enough of any one of them! They disappear faster than I can make them!