Black and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter

6 Tablespoons sugar

6 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup semi-sweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips
3/4 Ghirardelli white chocolate chips
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Makes about 3.5 dozen cookies
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Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350*

Cream butter and sugars.
Add egg, extracts, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
Add flour, allowing mixture to blend well.
Add both varieties of chocolate chips, mixing slowly, but well.

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto cookie sheet, preferably lined with parchment. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the sheet before removing.

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You all know how to mix cookie dough. Here's the dough, ready to go. This dough does not need to be chilled. 

I have found that putting cookies onto parchment is a life saver. They NEVER stick, the cookie sheets never get old enough to throw away. No worries! And believe it or not, parchment is reusable. I use it till it burns or gets ripped up. Just shake off the crumbs and store between your cookie sheets to protect it from wear and tear.

Another tip, using a scoop to get evenly sized cookies. This is the smallest, about 1.25 inches. 

Cooling racks are key for fast production. There are 4 separate racks standing here.

Here they are in use. I put two trays of cookie dough, ready to bake, one on the counter top, one immediately above that. One rack stays empty as an air break. The hot cookies right out of the oven go onto the top two racks to cool. I only have 4 cookie sheets, so once the baked cookies have cooled for a few minutes, I pull the parchment off onto the stove or a free counter to finish cooking, then I load those cookie sheets with another parchment sheet and raw dough. It's a very efficient way to crank out tons of cookies in no time at all. I mixed the dough while making dinner, almost no effort. I then baked 8.5 dozen cookies in 30 minutes.

After the cookies cool completely on the counter, I stack them in a travel box for Jonathan to take to school in the morning.

Done... Don't they look delicious? P.S. I doubled the recipe to make this many cookies. I had all of these plus a bowl with 20 cookies for us, at home. 

All finished with the cooling racks. They collapse and get put back into the cupboard. All four racks, about 1 inch high.