Lick-the-Beaters Chocolate Chip Cookies

All right, you guys. I'm going to give you my secret recipe - the one I've been refining for years (no joke) and the one everyone always asks me for. I can't vouch for how this will work at altitude, but the recipe I was working with toward the end of our time in Denver was pretty similar to this one and I had fairly consistent success with it. Everything comes out better at sea level though - it just does. After we moved here I realized I actually could bake bread and make cakes from scratch. I felt like a magician. Ah, sea level. I was always meant to come down from the mountains, you know? This altitude is so much better for me. I can breathe here.

So without further ado, here is the recipe.  Oh wait, no - one more thing. You'd probably have figured this out on your own, but I call these "Lick-the-Beaters Chocolate Chip Cookies" because they don't have eggs in them. I have no desire to do vegan cookies - I am ALL ABOUT THE BUTTER - but leaving the eggs out rocks because you can lick the beaters (and the bowl, and your fingers) without worrying about that scoundrel, Sal Monella. He wants to make you sick, but we're not having any of it. Go ahead and eat this dough by the spoonful if you want to. I won't tell.

Elizabeth's Lick-the-Beaters Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c. butter (1 stick!)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. white sugar
2 T. maple syrup (the real stuff, of course)
1 T. soymilk (or whatever milk you prefer - we don't do cow around here)
2 t. vanilla
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. chocolate chips (semisweet, always!)

You know the drill: cream the butter and sugar, add the maple syrup, milk and vanilla, then add the flour, baking soda and salt. You can sift your dry ingredients together and add them in slowly if it makes you feel good - whatevs, I say. Depends on how much of a hurry you're in. Then stir in your chocolate chips, drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet (line it with parchment paper or foil, please) and bake at 350 degrees for just about 9 minutes. Take them out even though they look just a smidge underdone, and let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes to finish baking through and firming up. Spatula them onto a wire rack to cool - a little bit, at least. The chocolate really will be too hot to spatula them directly into your mouth. I know you want to, but listen: we are all grown-ups here. YES WE ARE.

If your kids are nice, you should let them have a cookie (but only if they are very very good children) and then they will look like this: