Edwina's Chocolate Chip Cookies

So... cookies and kiddos. I love the idea of sharing recipes and I was trying to come up with a way to add a little something "extra" to make my postings unique. So, here is what I came up with... baking with a kiddo twist. Each week I'm going to share a recipe as well as an excellent children's book that goes with it.

For our first week I'm going to share an excellent chocolate chip cookie recipe as well as a sweet story by one of my favorite authors, Mo Willems. Mo Willems writes the most beguiling children's books. He has really simple pictures, witty banter, and is engaging and clever enough to keep even parents entertained. Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct is the story of a dinosaur (obviously) who befriends a town and, much to the delight of it's inhabitants, is not only super helpful, she makes them delicious chocolate chip cookies as well.

These chocolate chip cookies, inspired by Kelsey at Apple A Day, are so delicious. I modified the recipe, due in large part to the fact that my 2 year old woke up from a nap right as I was adding in ingredients; I was distracted and accidentally mixed up some quantities. However, with a little tweaking I was able to recover and the results were delicious!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/3 cup AP Flour
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.
Begin by creaming together the butter and sugars (**have I mentioned those are some of my favorite words**). Once light and fluffy add in egg and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients. Slowly blend into the butter/sugar mixture. Once thoroughly blended stir in chocolate chips and, if you like, pecans. (I generally make one pan of cookies with just chocolate chips, then adding the pecans into the remaining dough while the first batch bakes.)

I always line my baking sheet with parchment paper and I swear that this will make your life, and clean up, so much easier! I generally am able to fit 16 cookies onto one sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. The tops WILL NOT brown. It's okay. When the edges are golden, they are done!
Remove from oven, place in cooling racks, and for goodness sakes, let them cool enough that you don't burn your lip on a hot chocolate chip!

Once appropriately cooled, grab some cookies, your kiddos, and Edwina,The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct and enjoy some cuddling and cookie munching time!