That's the way...

...the 36 hour chocolate chip cookie crumbles.

Yeah, that wasn't very inventive. But, I have successfully made a fantastic batch of chocolate chip cookies, and you'd never guess, the trick is to leave them in the 'fridge for 36 hours. Stop drooling and follow the directions below:

Basic Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 1 cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oats
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 12oz bag chocolate chips
- nuts (if desired. Pecans are godly).

Cream the butter, add sugars, vanilla, eggs, and oats. Sift together flour, salt, and soda. Mix with other ingredients. Add chocolate and nuts.

Next is the hard part: cover, and put bowl in refrigerator for 1 1/2 days. For real. There's a reason for this, I promise. The liquid in the cookie dough (to be unscientific, eggs) needs to be absorbed into the grains. The butter prevents this from happening quickly, hence, the waiting period. Trust me, the wait is worth it. It helps to develop the brown sugar/toffee flavor in the cookies.

When you are ready to bake them, keep in mind, bigger is better. Wonder why cookies at bakeries are so good? The wait period and size. When the cookie is bigger, you get multiple kinds of cookie: crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, and perfect in between. Try for 4" of cookie dough on the sheet, flattened a bit. Bake at 375deg. for 10-12 minutes. Most people overbake cookies because it's easy to do -- just make sure the center is not gooey, and don't bother to wait for them to brown too much.

These cookies, like all cookies, are tasty right out of the oven, but they develop new flavors if you let them sit for 2-3 days in a cookie tin.

I'm cooking a new batch tomorrow (er, today, I guess. 12:47. egads) I'd love to hear how they turn out for others!