Valentine’s Day Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It is well known around here that these chocolate chip cookies are a weekly request in my house! I also get a lot of requests for this recipe when I post pictures on my Facebook and Instagram. They are usually a round, normal cookie shape but for the upcoming holiday I decided to use the heart shaped cookie cutter that I own and rarely use and have some fun with my daughter baking.

Here is my recipe!

1 cup butter (softened)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3’/4 cup organic sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

2 cups semi- sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts of choice (optional). For the heart cookies I did not use nuts
Kosher salt for sprinkling on top

How I made them:

Preheat oven to 350○

Cream the butter by either whisking, hand held mixer or in your stand up mixer. Add both sugars and combine until pale in color and combined, no lumps. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients in 3 parts(so you don’t make a crazy floury mess) and combine, do not over mix. Lastly add in your chocolate chips and optional nuts, fold in gently until just combined.

If you want regular round shaped cookies space out cookie blobs (with a tablespoon or ice-cream scoop) far enough apart so they don’t become one cookie cake. I do not grease the pan for these, I do use a rubber cookie sheet mat. ( You can find these at Bed bath and beyond and probably anywhere that has bakeware). Sprinkle a tiny bit of Kosher salt on each cookie. Bake cookies 8-10 minutes depending on your oven, until edges are just golden. These are soft cookies. If you prefer them more firm, cook longer. Let cool for a couple minutes, then enjoy!!

**FOR THE HEART SHAPED COOKIES**
Pour cookie batter onto cookie mat lined baking pan and spread out evenly in one layer. This took about 20-25 minutes to bake. The center was very soft and the edges were well done. When these came out HOT I cut out the cookies with heart shaped cookie cutter and let it sit to cool before I took the shapes out of the sheet.
After taking the cooled heart shapes off of the pan I saved all of the extra bits for my daughter and hubby to enjoy!