Frequent travelers have probably spent a night at a DoubleTree Hotel property at least once and had the sheer pleasure of being greeted by the person behind the desk asking if you’d like a warm chocolate chip cookie. That’s been my experience, and I always smile and nod affirmatively, all the while saying to myself, “Duh, yes, do you really need to ask? Can’t you see the smile on my face and twinkle in my eye, both of which are the telltale marks of a chocoholic when the word “chocolate” is mentioned?”
During these days of self-quarantining, I, like millions, have taken to baking. But it’s sometimes hard to find flour, sugar and all the other products you need to bake. So when the recipe for DoubleTree’s chocolate chip cookies appeared on Hilton’s website, I was ecstatic when I realized I had every single ingredient in my cupboard and refrigerator.
Nestle’s Tollhouse cookie recipe has always been my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies – it’s been hard to beat for generations of cooks. But DoubleTree’s recipe has now replaced it, having many of the same ingredients, plus a few extra seasonings and rolled oats, too. The amounts of flour, eggs and sugar are about the same as in the Tollhouse recipe. But the primary difference between the two is the amount of chocolate chips and nuts called for – almost double the number, pretty clever for DoubleTree. Maybe we should call this recipe DoubleTree Double Chip Cookies.
I had a Zoom cookie party with my daughters and grandchildren and felt a little guilty that I couldn’t share through the computer screen, but not so guilty that I didn’t reach for another cookie.
The only change in the recipe I made was using my stand mixer to mix in the chips and nuts. The cookie dough is so thick, doing it by hand, as the recipe says, is rather difficult. A couple of turns of the mixer paddle on low did the job very nicely.