Happy Accidents: Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Three mistakes. One amazing cookie recipe!

One thing I will never deny is my love of cookies. I don’t think I have ever met a cookie I didn’t like. Ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I do love me a good cookie! I am always looking for the best recipes out there. I have made many different variations of the ever famous chocolate chip cookie and I thought I found the perfect recipe for them. Crisco’s Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe was crowned my favorite. That is, until one day when I made them and accidentally made a mistake in the recipe. I thought I had doomed my batch of cookies but instead a miracle happened. My mistake made them even better! If that wasn’t enough, the next time I made them, another mistake. Another doomed feeling, and yet another miracle! AND IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH….a third time around, yet another mistake and yet another sense of doom {surely I had ran out of luck this time!} AND another excellent batch of deliciously bites of chocolate chippy goodness! Now it is the only way I make these cookies. I have dubbed them “Happy Accidents” because it took three mistakes to stumble upon the best cookie recipe ever.

Now you may be wondering what possible mistakes did I make that could make these cookies so good? I’ll let you in on my secret.

My first mistake: Using wheat flour mixed with all purpose flour.

Mixing wheat flour and all purpose flour made for a tasty first mistake.

When I went to make them I didn’t realize how low I was on all purpose flour. Having already had the sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla mixed, I was too far in to thrown in the towel. I decided to use the wheat flour and hope for the best. It ended up giving the cookies an unique texture and heartier, earthy flavor.

My next mistake: Using almond extract instead of vanilla.

I accidentally poured almond extract into the batter instead of vanilla.

This time I had already decided to use the wheat flour/all purpose flour mix since it tasted so good last time. While baking this time I was taking care of an ornery one year old at the same time which lead me to accidentally grab the almond extract from the cupboard instead of the vanilla. I realized this mistake when I bit into a fresh warm cookie and noticed a slight difference in its taste. It seemed nuttier. I looked at the ingredients still on my counter that I hadn’t put away and noticed the almond extract bottle. From then on, almond extract it was!

And now the third mistake: subbing in some white chocolate chips for milk chocolate.

Mixing white and milk chocolate chips make the best cookies

This time while making the cookies I did not realize that some little nugget in my house had opened and ate almost half a bag of milk chocolate chips. Not wanting my cookies to lack the necessary chips I decided to add in half a bag of white chocolate ones. I was afraid that they would make the cookie too sweet, and surely I couldn’t be lucky enough to have a third mistake turn out to be something wonderful. I baked the cookies and held my breath. To my surprise the cookies tasted even better than before! The sweetness of the white chocolate chips blended nicely with the nuttiness of the almond extract and the earthiness of the wheat flour. They were perfect.

Cookie baking time!

From that day on I tweaked my recipe to include all three mistakes. I have made the original recipe since but they just don’t compare to my delicious mistakes. Who knew that not one, not two, but THREE mistakes could result in such magic?! Why don’t you bake them yourself and see. Enjoy in moderation with a nice glass of cold milk!!

Milk and cookies. The world’s best pairing.