Conference turris::cooks

    Hi.
    
    I just made them last night and brought 4 dozen in to work (for my
    friends) this morning.  Only 8 cookies left!
    
    Here you go!
    
    Preheat oven to 375 degrees
    
    2 1/4 cups flour
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    3/4 cups white sugar
    3/4 cups packed (light) brown sugar
    1 teaspoon vanilla
    2 eggs
    1 cup (which is 2 sticks) softened
    2 cups Nestle's chocolate morsels
    
    And, if you want
    nuts/raisins  (when I use nuts my family prefers pecans)
    
    Beat sugar and butter til creamy.  Add eggs, vanilla, salt and baking
    soda.  Blend in flour - mix thoroughly.  Add chocolate chips and nuts
    (if you want)....stir.
    
    Drop by teaspoonful on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes.
    
    Three tips:  I found that preheating the cookie sheet for the first
                 batch helps.  Sometimes the first batch comes out a
                 little burnt on the bottom if you don't;
    
                 I don't grease my cookie sheet;
    
                 My family prefers the cookies 'soft'...so I under cook
                 them, by about a minute, then let them sit on the 
                 cookie sheet (out of the oven) for that extra minute.
               
    
    
    Enjoy!
    
    ...only 4 cookies left now!
    
    Marilyn
    

    Re:  2  
    
    You are VERY welcome - glad I could help!  
    
    Re:  3
    
    I know in the States there are several brands on the market - which I
    have been forced to buy in a pinch (especially around the holidays
    when they are sold out) and I find them 'waxy'.  Vowed never to buy
    them again.
    
    I don't know what other brands of 'chips' you are referring to in
    England.  Three suggestions!  Perhaps there is a mail order catalog
    where you could send away and buy the Nestle morsels - perhaps an out
    of the way gourmet shop (near where you live) that carries them?  Or, 
    write to the Nestle company directly and see if you could buy them from 
    them directly OR have someone in the States send you a 'care' package.
    
    I have a pen-pal in England - whom I have sent cans of Hershey syrup
    (for ice cream) - jars of honey - jars of Maple Syrup (I live in
    Massachusetts so it's quite plentiful here and fairly cheap) and bags
    of pecans.  If I could send THOSE things over (all sealed so the
    Custom's people couldn't say anything) I don't see why someone couldn't
    send you the Hershey's chocolate chips.
    
    Hope some of these suggestions help!
    
    Marilyn
    

    I cannot remember the brand name but they are called "polka dots" and
    some in a small maroon-colored bag. You'll need to buy probably about
    5-6 bags to equal the 12oz bag of Nestle's. The chips themselves are
    also smaller then the morsels but they taste pretty good - not waxy.
    Be sure to get the plain chocolate - that's semi-sweet.
    
    There is a shop in London that apperently sells everything from the
    States. I've heard oreos are about $5 a bag - but if you're desperate!
    
    I'll find out the brand name tonight.

  When we lived in France, we used any good-quality dark chocolate
  (Lindt, for instance) in place of the "real thing", and it always
  worked fine (in fact, we liked it better). Just break up the bar with
  a knife into chunks about 1 cm across or a bit larger.

When you consider that Nestl� is a Swiss company it is ironic that one of their
products is widely available 3000 miles away in America and unknown a short hop
away in Britain...

"Polka dots" are intended for sprinkling on the frosting of cakes incidentally
though I dare say that doesn't rule out their use in cookies.

Oh well the Marathon bar has been renamed "Snickers" to match the US - now all
we need is for US and UK "Mars" bar to be the same (they come from the same
company when all is said and done... :-))

/. Ian .\

    Sometimes, for special occasions I take the toll house cookie 
    recipe, double it and add
    
    a bag of chunky semi sweet chips
    a bag of chunky milk choc. chips
    a bag of reg. size peanut butter chips
    a bag of chunky white chips
    and a bag of m&m's
    and last but not least reg. choc. chips.....
    
    It could cause any choco-holic to kick up his heels in a hyperactive
    fit....
    
    amp
    

    The "polka dot" name here in England is just the name that a particular
    company uses on their chocolate chips. They do make the sprinkles for
    decorating and call them something like just dots or sparkles. It has
    certainly taken me some time to get used to the English name for things
    versus the American name for things. Plus getting used to so much
    prepared food - no one seems to cook from scratch here. I went to 4
    different stores before I could find tahini to make humous and everyone
    kept telling me "yes we have humous" and they couldn't grasp the
    concept that I wanted to make my own and needed the ingredients.  
    
    Nestle's has a very small (if any) market over here. Cadbury has it
    all it seems and they make a pretty good chocolate chip cookie here
    (considering it is boxed but it would run circles around a
    chips-a-hoy!) Here in England the Snickers bar now has a label saying
    "Internationally known as Snickers" but only the ice cream bar to date
    has offically changed to Snickers "Formally known as Marathon".