It's National Choco Chip Day!

In honor of National Chocolate Chip Day (thanks for the info, Twitter!), I am going to share with you my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  My favorite way to make them is with dark chocolate m&ms, but for the following recipe I'll just use dark chocolate chips.

Chelsea's Chocolate Chip Cookies!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (I've used light before, and it's fine!)
3/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 12 oz bag of dark chocolate chips
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp fine salt

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Position two racks in the center of the oven.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or if you don't have that (which I usually don't) just lightly spray with cooking spray.
-Melt the butter in microwave safe bowl on the medium setting until melted.  Let it cool slightly.
-Whisk the sugars, eggs, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth.
-In another bowl, mix your dry ingredients together--flour, baking soda, and salt.  Then add the combined dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, using a wooden spoon.  Don't over mix.  Then stir in your chocolate chips.  (Or if you're doing other mix-ins, add them in here)
-Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheets about 2 inches apart and form them into balls.
-Bake for 12 minutes, or up to 16 if you like your cookies more crunchy.  When done, they should be golden on the outside and still soft in the middle.

Here they are all dressed up for Christmas! (My freshmen year attempt at being artsy)

Like I said, this is my absolute go-to.  The dough is so versatile, so I've successfully used it as a base with other mix-ins as well as used it to make a killer Twix-stuffed cookie.  (All you do is make the same recipe with or without chocolate chips, then stuff a mini twix bar in the center of a ball of dough!)

Enjoy and eat some chocolate chips today!