Baking Marathon

In the month of January, we plan on eating only from our pantry and freezer.  I know that we will have to purchase a few food items like eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables, etc.  We will make a stock up trip to Aldi before the new year but after that the words "grocery store" will be four letter words.  So to prepare the family for pantry eating, I decided to experiment this weekend to see if I could make enough snacks to last them for a week.  As a side note, my husband and son both suffer from a sweet tooth.  During my marathon baking session, I used a five pound bag of flour and ended up with strawberry muffins, a loaf of strawberry bread, two loaves of zucchini bread, a pan of brownies, five dozen chocolate chip cookies, two medium sized bread bowls and five yeast rolls. 

These chocolate chip cookies are some of the best cookies I have ever made.  I have used several recipes over the years and always return to this recipe.  I think the secret to these cookies lies in the fact that you mix instant pudding powder into the batter.  These cookies stay soft and yummy.

Amazing Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups butter, softened

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2.	In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown. Adapted from Allrecipes.com