Chocolate Chip Cookies {Chow Hall Monday #1}

Tweet

Welcome everyone to the VERY first edition of Chow Hall Mondays here on the blog, where every other Monday I will shine the spot light on one special Military family and their recipe of choice.  

Recipes mean so much more when there are special memories attached to them.  Add in a few sprinkles of Military life, mix in a tablespoon of love, and you have the fixin's for one awesome recipe post!  

Let's get started with our very first Military Spouse, Stefanie Markin.  She's sharing her family's favorite recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yummmm!  

******************************************************

My name is Stefanie Markin and I am an Air Force wife, married to Beau Markin and mother of two beautiful children, Kayla (20) and Joey (19).  We are currently stationed at Barksdale AFB and are enjoying the experience of living in the South and experiencing the Louisiana culture.  

Beau has been in the Air Force for 27 years and we have been married for almost 22 of those years.  I am currently a SAHM (my husband jokes that I have the best job, a SAHM with two kids away at college!) and I am fortunate to be able to do a lot of volunteer work in the community and on base.  I manage the Airman’s Attic on Barksdale and I very often will bring in food that I have made to share with the other volunteers and some of the airmen that come in.

Thanks to my parents I have always had a love for cooking and especially for baking.  I really think that moving around so much has enhanced my love for being in the kitchen.  When we move we meet new people, eat at new restaurants and find new foods in the local stores which leads to great excuses to spend time trying new recipes. 

Our assignment prior to Barksdale was at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs.  While there I cooked meals at our church with a wonderful team of ladies.  One of the gals baked the best sweets and when I found out she had actually written her own cookbook with lots of the recipes we had sampled in it I had to buy one immediately.  

I have over a hundred cookbooks on my bookshelves and many of them aren’t used often but I have to say that Sarah’s Sweets and Some More, by Sarah Wulfsberg, Fourth Edition is a cookbook I have out on my counter at least once a week.  The recipe I am sharing with y’all today is from her cookbook with a few minor adjustments that I made.   

The reason I chose this particular recipe is that my husband is deployed again and every time he is deployed he specifically asks me to bake these cookies and mail them to him. Let’s be honest though, whether deployed or not, he very frequently wants to munch on these.  

I have to be cautious when I make these because if I walk out of the room before I get the dough on the cookie sheets and into the oven I can come back to a bowl that has much less dough in it.  Because this recipe has raw eggs in it I do not recommend you eat the dough but no matter how many times I tell my husband this it doesn’t seem to matter.  To him it is apparently well worth the risk! 

I hope y’all enjoy these cookies as much as we do!  They are so yummy and actually seem to hold up well in the mail so when they get to him they are still tasty! 

Our Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine (I prefer to use one stick of each)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp milk

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 ¼ cups flour

2 ½ cups rolled oats

2 oz milk chocolate chips

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1 ½ cups of nuts (optional)

Directions:

1.  Cream together butter and both sugars.  Add eggs, vanilla and milk; beat well. 

2.  Mix in salt, baking soda, baking powder and flour.  

3.  Put oats and milk chocolate in the food processor or blender until the oats and chocolate are ground.  Add to butter and flour mixture and mix well.  

4.  Stir in semisweet chocolate chips and nuts (if using).  Place golf ball size pieces of dough on ungreased cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (I prefer to use parchment paper when baking cookies but it’s really a personal preference.)  

5.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Let sit on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes; then cool completely on a wire rack. 

NOTE: These freeze very well.

******************************************************

Thank you so much Stefanie for sharing the story behind your family's awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I don't know about y'all but my goodness these look delish!!  

Our family's chocolate chip cookie recipe may have some competition ahead :)  

If you are a Military Spouse (past or present) or the parent of a Military Service member and you would like to submit your recipe and story, please send an e-mail to: olivias@cookingwithlibby.com.