Allergy-friendly baking day | Beaumont Photographer

When I was in high school, I had a recipe for chocolate chip cookies memorized. To the point that if we had a class potluck, I would volunteer to bring these cookies and not even open the cookbook. Unfortunately, I had a friend who had major allergies and could never have any. I had never found a recipe that was close to my original one that I liked that didn't include eggs.

Years later, when I worked at Fort Edmonton Park, one of my coworkers brought in these chocolate chip cookies that were egg-free so that our supervisor would be able to enjoy them, as he was also allergic to eggs.

I made them for the first time a couple weeks ago, and now I think that this cookie recipe will take the place in my brain of my original cookies.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

- 8 oz. cream cheese

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/2 brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 2 cups flour

- 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Cream butter, cheese, sugars and vanilla until smooth. Add salt, baking soda and flour, and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips.

2. Drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes at 350F.

3. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

This should make about 3 dozen cookies, but I personally prefer a larger cookie, so I make 2 dozen.

Don't worry - this isn't going to turn into a baking blog, but I am having way too much fun in my kitchen now that I have a normal sized oven. My old apartment had a small oven and what my friends have dubbed as a fun-size fridge. Let me know if you've tried making these cookies! My roommate and I can't get enough.

You can also add in other things to these cookies to make them more of your own. I've used M&M's, Smarties, Mini Eggs, chopped walnuts, and white chocolate chips. Let me know how they turned out for you!