If you come to my house, on any given day, you will find a large tub of homemade chocolate chip cookie dough in my refrigerator. I know that my boys are now “grown and flown”, but this is one piece of their childhood that I know will carry over for years to come. I will *always* have cookie dough in my fridge – the ability to quickly have homemade cookies available, whether to share immediately or to gift to someone stopping by, is something that truly brings me joy.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 t baking soda
• 2 t salt
• 1 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 1/2 t ground ginger
• 2 cups Butter Crisco
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 t almond extract
• 2 T water
• 1 T red wine (preferably dry)
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 3 – 3 1/2 cups of chocolate morsels (I use a mixture of dark/bittersweet, mini chips, regular chips, and a small amount of espresso chips)

DIRECTIONS:

• In large mixer bowl, with a paddle attachment, blend the butter crisco, white sugar, and brown sugar together until well combined and very light in color. I let the mixer run while I put together the dry and wet ingredients.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, chili powder, and ginger. These are your “dry ingredients”. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl (I use a 2-cup silicone measuring cup), break the eggs and whisk together. Once the eggs are well combined, add the vanilla, almond extract, water, red wine, and balsamic vinegar. Gently stir to combine. These are your “wet ingredients”. Set aside.
• Once the sugar mixture looks “light and fluffy”, begin to slowly add your wet and your dry ingredients, alternating between wet and dry and mix well between each, NOTE: don’t use all the dry ingredients – leave a small amount in the bowl to toss with the chocolate chips.
• As your mixer finishes blending your cookie dough, measure out your chocolate chips into the same bowl used to gather the dry ingredients and toss the chips with the small amount of the flour mixture that you saved.
• Add in the entire contents of the bowl containing the chocolate chips/flour mixture. You can do this in stages or all at once, just make sure to add it all. Take time to mix everything well.
• Transfer your completed chocolate chip cookie dough into a container and store in your fridge, baking cookies as needed… Mine rarely lasts more than a month.
• To bake: preheat your oven to 375*F. Using a small cookie scoop, place balls of cookie dough on a tray covered with a sheet of parchment paper. Bake cookies at 375* for 11 minutes. If you’re making this recipe for the first time, bake cookies for 10 minutes and adjust cooking time for your oven.

There are many, many ways to make this recipe your own. I originally started with the traditional Toll House cookie recipe but got bored making the same… thing… every… time… especially when if felt like I was making cookies ALL THE TIME. Here’s the back story:

When we were originally stationed at the US Naval Academy in 1991, I had a 1 year old son and my husband was teaching in Seamanship & Navigation, attached to the Sailing Department. He filled out an application to be an Officer Rep for a sports team and was pleasantly surprised when he was selected to be the O-Rep for the Varsity Men’s Soccer team! I became involved when he came up with the idea of giving each player a bag of cookies for his birthday. I would make enough chocolate chip cookies to fill a gallon-sized ziplock bag, write “Happy Birthday to ___ from Mrs LT”, and drop it off at Main Office in time for each player’s birthday. This was a really fun idea… in theory. I think we had one birthday in the first month, but the next month we had four birthdays in two weeks! I quickly learned to make cookie dough in double batches and started experimenting with the recipe to come up with something unique and delicious.

Over the years, I’ve added and adjusted the recipe until I came up with the one I’ve posted here. I work for @BoordyVineyard, so I love to incorporate their wine into any recipe I create – and pairing their red wine with chocolate makes it such a happy experience! I hope you enjoy trying this recipe… and feel free to tag me (@AliSportShots) !