Slightly healthier and totally scrumptious chocolate chip cookies

I made these last week and a few of you on Facebook asked me to post the recipe. I mistakenly said it was adapted from "The Best Recipe" cookbook; in fact, it's from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything," which I also highly recommend for average cooks.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Preparation and cooking time: about 45 minutes.

Whole wheat flour chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) organic unsalted butter, softened "just enough"
• 3/4 white sugar
• 3/4 packed brown sugar
• 2 organic free range eggs
• 2 cups organic whole wheat all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (fair trade organic if possible)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375'
2. Use an electric mixer to beat sugar (both types) and butter together. The softness of the butter is key here. Be sure it's softened, but not melted. It will be hard to mix but the consistency matters.
3. Add the eggs into this mix one at a time and beat until well blended.
4. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and add them to the batter by hand, stirring to blend.
5. Add the vanilla and chocolate chips and mix in. It might seem that the vanilla does not get well blended at this stage, but it's worked okay for me.
6. Drop by tablespoons onto parchment lined baking sheets (the ones with the air layer are best; can use ungreased if you don't have parchment paper).
7. Bake until lightly browned, about 11 minutes.
8. Cool for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks or place on wax paper (or just keep them on the parchment paper and slide off the sheet).

Supposedly, they only keep in a covered container at room temperature for a couple of days, but chances are, they will only last that long anyway! You could freeze half the batch for a nice treat another time.

Enjoy!