One of the things that I love about going home to the suburbs – having access to a full-size suburban family size kitchen and free reign over the oven. Over Thanksgiving, I made sure to take full advantage of the opportunity to bake to my heart’s content. One of my current favs is this chocolate chip cookie recipe – it includes a secret ingredient (instant vanilla pudding mix!) that gives the cookie extra depth of flavor and chewy-ness. These cookies are perfect from the oven – soft, chewy with little morsels of molten chocolate.

• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup butter (or 1/2 c. margarine, 1/2 c. butter – this makes the cookie softer when cool)
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 1 packet instant vanilla pudding
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups chocolate chips (mix it up a bit by using half white, half dark!)

Cookie Dough

1. Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, add instant vanilla pudding. Mix well until combined.
4. Fold in chocolate chips
5. To make cookies: roll 1 tbsp. of cookie dough into a ball and then flatten onto ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F until cookies are tan and slightly browned on the bottoms (about 10 to 12 minutes).
7. Enjoy with a tall, icy cold glass of milk!

Baked!