High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've always been a Toll House cookie gal, that is, until living in a small mountain town with an elevation of 5,500ft above sea level.  The tried and true recipe on the back of the chocolate chip package does not work here. I expect chewy cookies, crisp on the outer edges and soft in the center.  I think I have "finally" found "the" recipe...stumbled upon this recipe online and it delivers!!

I've shared the recipe below with my usual modifications...use organic ingredients wherever I can along with Montana produced "non-gmo" wheat flour....oh, and I added chopped walnuts and made a larger cookie than what was called for in the recipe online. Upon typing this post, I realize my "golf ball" sized dough balls are somewhat larger than an actual golf ball. So to that I say, make whatever size you'd like...smaller balls yield more cookies & less baking time...enjoy!

FYI...from a modification standpoint compared to the Toll House recipe, this high altitude recipe uses an additional 1/4 cup each of white sugar, brown sugar and flour along with an extra egg.

High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 3 dozen large cookies

1 c organic salted butter
1 c organic cane sugar
1 c organic brown sugar
3 large farm fresh eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 1/2 c Wheat Montana all-purpose flour
2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (12oz bag)
1 c chopped walnuts (not an option for me, but you can leave them out!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix butter and both sugars until smooth.  Mix in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla.  In a separate bowl, mix salt, baking soda and flour.  Add dry ingredients to wet and mix just until blended.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  Shape dough into golf-ball sized rounds. Place 2" apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Flatten ball slightly using palm of hand.

Bake 12-15 minutes, rotating half way through baking time. Remove cookies from baking sheet and place on a cooling rack.

I didn't want to bake the entire batch at one time, so I rolled the dough into balls, and placed them on a parchment lined baking sheet, followed by putting them in the freezer overnight.

The next morning, I put the frozen dough balls into a zip-lock bag and returned them to the freezer for future use.

Remove frozen cookie dough balls from freezer and place on parchment lined baking pan. Allow to come to room temperature before baking....follow recipe for baking temperature and time.