What is more all American than classic chocolate chip cookies?  These are my Momma’s famous CCC’s – it’s an honor to share this family classic.  It’s possible they taste a lot like your Mom’s chocolate chip cookies, but to me, they taste like home, and a Mother’s love, and that time our dog Beamer jumped up on the kitchen counter and ate the cookies while they cooled (don’t worry, he was fine), and seriously so many great memories.  Just thinking about them brings joy to my heart.  They are always on point, so melty, amazing texture of chewyness with a tiny crunch on the end, to me, they are a simple cookie in it’s most perfect form.

1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2 tablespoons room temperature water
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup choppped walnuts (1 1/2 if you you’re doing nuts in all the cookies, but Mom always makes half “non-nutty” for the littles)

1.  Prepare 2 cookie sheets with baking spray, parchment or a silpat (Mom uses the wrapper from the butter to grease the sheet) and preheat the oven 350.
2. Chop up walnuts so there are some good sized bits, but not huge chunks, otherwise known as coarsely chopped.
3. Cream butter with sugars, then add eggs and vanilla until totally combined.  Add water and mix well.  Next Add your flour salt and baking soda (you can sift them if you want, but they are fantastic either way).  Mix until just combined then fold in your chocolate chips, and if you’re making cookies sans nuts for people who are “not enlightened” as my Mom puts it, now is the time to drop your cookies in about 2 tablespoon plops with room to spread on to your prepared sheet and while the first batch is baking, add your nuts for the next.
4. Bake about 8-9 minutes – bake time is not important, doneness is.  You want these cookies out of the oven when they are still shiny and doughy looking in the middle, but the edges are brown at the bottom and starting to set.  If you overbake them, just give them to a neighbor you don’t like because you’ve done a terrible thing to an otherwise perfect chocolate chip cookie!  They will bake a little longer as they cool on the cookie sheet and after 10 minutes or so, move them to a cooling rack.  I would tell you to let cool before serving but that’s just adorable non-sense.  Eat them as soon as they don’t burn your mouth!  They keep for a day or two in a well sealed container, but I often end up freezing what we don’t eat the first day or two and then you can defrost them for 20 seconds and re-live that fresh out of the oven feeling.