The title of this should be “The Best Cookie Dough Evah” – for emphasis of how wonderfully delicious this dough bakes up. But, I’m not sure how that translates for other people and I didn’t want to confuse anyone.

Let me be clear that if you belong to the camp of people who wrongly believe cookies should be crunchy or crisp, this is not the dough for you. Turn away now; I don’t think we can evah be friends.

Now that we’ve necessarily gotten rid of the fall-apart-in-your-hand-cookie-haters, let’s proceed.

This is the basic drop cookie dough recipe I have used for the past couple of years, adapted from a recipe that relied (way too heavily) on the use of vegetable shortening (eek!). One thing I feel should be noted is that with the use of coconut oil, you can expect your cookies to spread more than with other dough recipes; this can be helped, somewhat, if you chill your dough in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes prior to baking. Personally, it doesn’t bother me (partly because I’m slightly impatient), but if you like your cookies to be more uniform and not all merging together into a cookie conglomerate, you may want to take this extra step.

If you use virgin coconut oil (which I prefer), you will also get an ever-so-light coconut flavor. If you don’t like coconut, it will be too much for you to bear (“light flavor” to someone who likes it is “overpowering” to those who don’t, I’ve found), so use refined coconut oil or just replace it with butter. Same goes for those who are allergic to coconut – just replace it with butter. It will still taste and bake up just fine (though slightly less awesome).

The Best Cookie Dough Ever

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup butter (I always use salted, but go with whatever you have)
• 3/4 cup organic cane sugar (you can use white sugar, if that’s all you have)
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar (you can use sucunat or packed brown sugar)
• 2 eggs (free range are best)
• 2 tsp. flavoring (or more, if desired. See the note in Step 1 below)
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• Extra goodies: chocolate chips, nuts, white chocolate, etc. (See Step 4)

What to do:

1. Beat first four ingredients until well blended. Add the eggs and flavoring, and beat until combined. (Note: This basic dough recipe can be used for a variety of cookie flavors. Use vanilla if you’re making chocolate chip cookies, or orange flavoring if you want to make dreamsicle cookies, or mint flavoring for mint chocolate chip cookies, etc. You are only limited by your imagination!)
2. Add 1 cup of flour, and all of the salt and baking soda to the bowl and mix on low until flour is no longer dry; beat on medium until well-combined.
3. Add remaining flour and mix on low until it is moistened; beat on medium until thoroughly mixed, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go.
4. Add any extras to the dough and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. (For chocolate chip cookies, I generally use 2 1/4 cups semisweet morsels; for dreamsicle, use 2 1/4 cups white chocolate chips; for nutty chocolate chip, I use 2 cups semisweet morsels and 1 cup chopped nuts – my favorite is pecans. But, feel free to customize this to whatever suits your taste buds.)
5. Use a small ice cream scoop/melon baller/or rounded tablespoon to plop spoonfuls of dough onto a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, leaving a couple of inches between rows. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 8 minutes (when tops/edges begin to brown slightly). Remove pan from oven, and transfer parchment paper to cooling rack (I do this so I don’t have to clean my cooling racks every time).
6. Devour Enjoy, and share with all of your friends (real or imaginary, I won’t tell)!

This makes a couple dozen cookies, depending on how big your scoops are (and how much of the dough you eat before they make it into the oven – not that I condone that or anything).