Eat This While You Read That: Marty Kelley
When I started doing ETWYRT I will admit I didn't have a big plan for how it would go. But in the year since I started (I've skipped a few weeks so we aren't up to #52 yet) I've had the pleasure of talking to all kinds of authors, and an editor, and in asking Marty Kelley for a dish, I was again being different. You see, Marty writes and illustrates children's books. He's responsible for one of my kids' favorite titles when they were toddlers, Fall is not Easy. Last year, he made an appearance at my son's elementary school, and actually remembered me and talked to my son, which just made Little Man's week if not month. He came home and asked me for another of Marty's books, Fame, Fortune, and the Bran Muffins of DOOM!
Based on Marty remembering me, I asked him for a dish, after explaining this crazy project, and he was happy to give me one. I know some of my readers have young children or grandkids, and I think they will like his books. His art is fun, and very well done - I'm picky about art in kids books. I want it to look good, and Marty delivers. His stories are zany, did you see that title up there? And his very latest release is Albert's Almost Amazing Adventure which makes me wish I still had a kid that would sit in my lap and listen.
And of course, he gave me the perfect thing for curling up with a kid, a read-aloud book, and a big glass of milk.
Chocolate Chip Bookies Cookies
1 cup butter (note: if you like your cookies chewy, reduce this to 1/2 cup)
3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (use 1 tsp if you used unsalted butter)
2 cups chocolate chips. Or more. More is good.
2 1/4 c flour
Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
So sweet and chocolaty!
Cream together the butter and sugar. Or you can melt the butter and let it cool a bit, then mix it up, which is a bit faster. Mix in the eggs, vanilla, and chocolate chips. Add the salt and baking soda. Slowly add the flour, mixing just enough to incorporate it. Don't overmix!
Dish the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet (I really love my silicon mats for this). Bake for about 12 minutes. They may not look done when you pull them out, but leave them on the pan for about two minutes before putting them on a rack to cool and they will be fine.
I tried something I'd seen Alton Brown do, and determined I need a smaller scooper if I do it again. This made BIG cookies! For scale, this is a full sheet pan.
Serve with milk. Dip. Crunch, and enjoy! Try not to get crumbs on the book...
Really big cookies. Big enough the dragons are doing battle over them.
This is pretty much the recipe I've been making since I was a kid myself. Only we usually doubled if not quadrupled the batch, so we could freeze dough and or cookies that would go in lunches. I do usually cut the butter in half, but some people like crunchy and it's nicer for dipping, less crumbs in the bottom of the milk after. Oh, and if anyone's curious, almond milk works just fine for dunking cookies.
Almond milk works if you can't do real milk.
The First Reader's comment was to sneak into the kitchen and snag the first cookie as soon as I turned my back after putting them on the rack to cool. He says they may not look like chocolate chip cookies but the chips are just hiding in there. They taste right, he says!
Evidently I hid the chocolate chips. Or I need to add more.