A Bit of Me(Me): C is for Cookie!

Today's question over at There's a Book for this getting to know you meme is:

What is your favorite cookie?

Hello? Are you kidding me? Well, I'm not going to analyze this question over much because it actually is a simple one, even though truthfully, it could get quite involving. So I'm just going to tell you the first thing that comes to mind.

My favorite "every day" cookie is by far the all American Chocolate Chip Cookie! We make them a lot at our house (by a lot I mean once or twice a month... it would be more if I could eat cookies without guilt.) I've experimented with different recipes and find that there are for sure some that work better than others. We make them only with butter these days and have found that this recipe from All Recipes.com is truly awesome.

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.
For my favorite "Christmas" cookie the honor goes to what we call Hello Dolly Cookies at our house. Many of you probably know them as Magic Bars. I'm not sure how this became a Christmas cookie for us, but my mom just always made them then, so I carried on the tradition. The smell of these baking says Christmas to me just as much as pine, cinnamon, peppermint and all the other regular Christmas scents. 

Here's the recipe if you are interested:

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for glass dish). Coat 13x9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork.
Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature.

Note: I'm not fond of nuts in recipes and leave them out of everything. However, if you leave them out of this one, it won't work. And I love them no less despite the fact that they have to have the nuts! I chop them really really fine, and it does the trick.

What's your favorite cookie? Write a post and link up over at There's a Book.