It's the first day of December (weeeeird), and cookie season is upon us. I know there are tons of crazy cookie recipes out there (tuna cookies, anyone?), but I love a good ol' chocolate chip cookie - crunchy and chewy, sweet and a little salty. These aren't my cookies... what my friends call "butter suckin'" cookies, but they're still awesome and probably a little more palatable to the masses.

Deb over at Smitten Kitchen had this recipe up awhile back, and it's super yummy. Be sure to not overbake them; they get a little crunchy and lose their chewiness.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 cups minus 2 tbsp. (8 1/2 oz.) cake flour
• 1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 oz.) bread flour 
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. granulated (white) sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 lbs. dark chocolate (I didn't use this much; the husband likes his cookies a little less chocolate-y) and see if you can use really big pieces like Ghirardelli bittersweet chips
• sea salt (kosher would be okay, too)

Sift together your dry ingredients (flour-salt) into a bowl. Why? It gets out the lumps in your flour and adds a little extra air. Don't skip this step. In another mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. What does cream mean? You want the dough to become light in color and bulk up a bit. Add the eggs, and wait until the first one is completely mixed in before adding the second. Then add the vanilla.

Now on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients. Why slow? This way you won't get a flour shower, and it helps the dry ingredients become evenly incorporated into the wet. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to get all the dough together. Last, stir in the chocolate. Now cover the dough with plastic wrap, and make sure the plastic is actually touching the dough. Why? I honestly have no idea. I think it keeps it from drying out, but seriously I don't know. I just do what I'm told. Chill the dough in the fridge for 24 to 72 hours.

When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Scoop golf ball sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet (I like those air bake ones, and I used a little food scoop but spoons are great), and space them decently apart. Sprinkle the tops with a little bit of sea salt. I know, I know. Just do it. Then bake for 18-20 minutes. I have a convection oven, so mine only took about 12 minutes. Like I said before, just watch them so they don't overbake.

Here's a great key. Once they're out of the oven, leave them on the pan on a cooling rack for about ten minutes. Then move the cookies to another cooling rack. Why? (I sound like a three year old with all these questions.) The cookies come up so easily. For real. No muscle to pry them from the pan, and I didn't even use parchment paper like Deb suggested. (Maybe I don't always do what I'm told.)

These are great cookies to give as gifts because they're extremely sturdy and stackable and transportable. My butter-suckin' cookies have so much butter that they all sort of sink into each other. These don't. Very user-friendly if cookies can be user-friendly.

What's your favorite holiday cookie? I want some new recipes. :)