Chocolate Chip Cookies

First things first, and then I'll get to these little bundles of chocolate goodness. First of all, I need your help! My recipe for Farro with Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard has been selected as a finalist in the Whole Foods Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge, and now it's up on the Whole Foods website from for people to rate, review and post comments! (And the other recipes are great too, so go check them out!)

How can you help?  Go to the Whole Foods website and post a comment about my recipe!  By posting a comment on one of these recipes, you'll be entered into a drawing for a $500 Whole Foods Market gift card! (Ten runners-up will receive $25 gift cards.)

So go on over there and take a look, and when you're done feeling healthy and budget-conscious, whip up a batch of these for dessert.

Because these are the easiest, simplest chocolate chip cookies possible. They're pretty darn close to the recipe on the back of the Hershey's package, but adding the New York Times's excellent suggestion of sprinkling sea salt on the tops of the unbaked cookies -- you cannot believe what a difference it makes. Sometimes I want my recipes to be interesting and unique -- sometimes I just want them to be yummy. And for that, these cookies were perfect.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick of butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp fleur du sel

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a cookie sheet lined with silipat or parchment paper.

Bake 9 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for one minute, transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.