I promised the scheduler at my doctor’s office (the one who was able to pull several hundred strings and get my surgery scheduled for the one week the kids will be away) a batch of cookies. She probably thought I was joking. Now, to be sure, I joke about many, many things. But I never joke about dessert. Some things are sacred.

So great is my admiration for this woman, I decided that she deserved Really Good Cookies. Naturally that meant I headed over to Bakerina‘s. I recalled she’d posted an excellent-sounding recipe for chocolate chip cookies. But, alas, the recipe was a link to Theresa at Flying Piggies (which is now defunct); so in a panic I mailed Bakerina to beg for the recipe. Bakerina, being the lady that she is, didn’t require much grovelling at all. She passed along the recipe last night, and I woke up this morning Ready To Bake.

First problem: we’re having a teensy bit of a heat wave here. It’s going to be 95 degrees today. (No, I don’t have central air; and the AC units I do have aren’t in the windows yet.) Second problem: I scanned the recipe and realized a stop at the store was in order (taking up precious early-morning-coolness time). Okay, I’m not fazed. I can do this!

Third problem: I should not be allowed to make any recipe that involves an entire pound of butter and an entire pound of cream cheese (have mercy!). By the time we’d dropped the Chickadee at school, made the grocery run, returned home, and I got the mixer going… I’d already gained 5 pounds. The Monkey was “helping” me, which consisted mostly of dancing around the kitchen singing “Coooooooookies! Cooooooookies!” and asking when it would be time to lick the beaters.

The recipe yields a bathtub’s worth of mouth-watering batter. Fourth problem: I have one oven, two cookie sheets, and will probably now be baking until my appointment at the office this afternoon at 4:45.

Fifth problem: this is the most amazing chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t want to eat anything else. Ever. Again. I will no doubt be a huge hit at the doctor’s office, but that presupposes that there will be any cookies left when I get there….

SIXTH PROBLEM: In attempting to save you, my dear friends, from a similar downward spiral, I omitted the recipe. But it turns out that you’d all like to join me in the Pit of Gluttony. The more the merrier, I say. Just don’t touch my cookies.

Ingredients:
1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound cream cheese (2 8 oz. packages)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
5 cups (dip and sweep) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups (about 1 1/2 pounds) chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, cream cheese, and vanilla extract and beat until well-incorporated. In another bowl, combine flour with baking powder and salt. Add by cupfuls to the wet mix. When that’s all mixed together, fold in the chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 14-18 minutes. (Bakerina says 18 minutes for 1/4 cup scoop cookies, I found 16 minutes ample for heaping tablespoon dropfuls, which fit about 8 cookies to a standard sheet.) Bakerina cautions not to overbake because they will lose their “lovely cheesy tang.” So watch them, and they seem to be done just when the edges are starting to darken.

Enjoy, and thanks again to Theresa (originally) and Bakerina (swooping in, hero-style) for the recipe!