chocolate chip cookies by whisks

these cookies are both crispy and chewy - crisp on the edges and chewy towards the middle. to keep them chewy in the centre, it's important not to over bake them; you want them to be sufficiently cooked so they hold together, and still be chewy.
if small mounds of dough are placed on the baking tray to make small cookies, the resulting cookies are not unlike the ones from famous amos. i remember to first time i had a famous amos cookie and thought that they were so buttery, crisp and crunchy - i didn't know that my cookies were a no effort clone of famous amos. the actual intention of these cookies was to copy those of mrs field - these aren't a mrs field's clone, but i'm very happy with them, as are miss c and miss k and all those who have had them.
because these cookies are so quick and easy to make, i often like to whip up a batch before we go somewhere, and there's nothing as homey and comforting as fresh cookies. they also make the house smell welcoming. if you know you are going to see some friends soon, why not surprise them with a batch of these?
feel free to mix and match with the chocolate - if you do end up using chopped up block chocolate, the ones with nuts are very good - and i just love the irregularity of the chopped chocolate - it adds a certain charm to the cookies, don't you think?

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
600 grams chocolate chips (or chopped up block chocolate, which is my preference)

preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius.
in a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.
add the flour & salt.
mix together.
stir in the chocolate chips.
place walnut-sized dough portions a baking tray lined with baking paper. i find that six lumps of dough fit on the baking tray comfortably. i like to use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out the cookie dough so my hands don't get messy and so the cookies are fairly even in size.
bake for 10-13 minutes or just until edges are light brown. the time the cookies are in the oven really depend your preferences and your oven.
makes 30 cookies.