It turned out that the day of the planned party ended up being horrible and shitty. Stupid cuts in government funding lead to stupid cuts in already-promised grants which lead to stupid lay-offs at work. When everyone is watching their friends back up their desks and wishing the damn recession would just stop, a very good cookie no longer becomes a nice thing to have. It becomes a damn necessity. So it was lucky I had them on hand. Sadly I didn't have mint chips to go in them (and mint is one of my favorite added flavors to any and everything) but they were still incredibly awesome and drool-worthy. Perhaps one day I will make enough money to buy mint extract by the pint and add it at will to whatever I want, but until then I reserve it for special occasions or days when I unexpectedly find $20 on the ground.
What makes these cookies even more awesome is the fact that they have no butter in them. They are by no means healthy, don't get me wrong here, they just use oil instead. Don't try to replace it with anything healthy though. In these cookies, the oil is a necessity for texture and consistency so if you take it out they won't work. But if you happen to be cutting dairy out of your diet they're perfect.
On to the making of the cookies.
What you'll need:
3 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 cups chocolate chips. Mint flavored if possible.
Directions
Another reason these cookies are great is because they're so darn simple. First preheat the oven to 350, the lovely and universal cookie temperature. Then combine 1 cup sugar and the vegetable oil in a bowl and mix well. You can use beaters but it's not really necessary (another perk about using oil instead of butter).
Add in the eggs and vanilla.
Now slowly beat in the flour, baking powder and salt. Technically you should mix the baking powder in with the flour first and then mix the baking powder and flour mixture into the oil and egg mixture. As you know by now, I like to cut out the use of unnecessary bowls so I usually just pour half the flour into the egg mixture and then add the baking powder into the measuring cup with the last half of the flour, mix it in there, and pour it into the egg mixture. It looks silly but it makes me feel like I'm not skipping a step and I get to wash one less bowl so I highly recommend it.
Now mix the chocolate chips into the cookie dough. Sometimes I think the dough is too wet and I add a little extra flour. It can vary so add flour until you have a dough that you can roll nice balls out of, it should be somewhere between a total of 3-3 1/2 cups but don't worry about getting it exact.
Pull small amounts of dough out and roll them into little balls, these don't expand much but they're pretty rich so you shouldn't need a lot of dough for each cookie.
Now pour the remaining 1/4 sugar into a small bowl (or do what I do and just put it in the one-cup measuring cup). Roll small balls of dough in the sugar until they're completely covered, then place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
They don't spread out much so you can pack them pretty closely. If you want to get extra fancy you can throw some cinnamon in with the sugar, but I kind of like how white the cookies are if you just roll them in plain sugar.
Bake them for about 10 minutes and then eat them while they're hot (without burning your tongue if possible). It's impossible to eat just one. Go on and try it, I dare you. If you do manage to resist, you're probably one of those crazies who are allergic to chocolate and/or love and happiness and I want nothing to do with you you.
Okay dears, go eat, bake, and be merry.
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