Chocolate Chip Crunchies

Once again, Joanne Fluke knocks another great recipe out of the park, this time in Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.  If you decide to buy this book, be sure to look for the special edition which includes a bonus short story and extra recipes.  It's a good read, too!

Earlier this month, I was preparing to visit Mike after one of his training gigs in Milwaukee.  We were going to meet up with a couple of our Twitter pilot friends there, so I decided to see if I could successfully pack some homemade cookies in my carry-on bag.  These were my test recipe.  Our Mach 10 CRAZED Pilot flight bag turned out to be a fantastic cookie carrier.  The padded pockets on the end were just the right size to hold the containers snugly and securely.  The cookies arrived in perfect condition and still soft.  Mike nabbed several cookies right after I landed, and we still had plenty to share with Kent and Larry and Larry's wife Maribeth.  They all gave the cookies a thumbs-up.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 cups crushed corn flakes
• 1 to 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Spritz a baking sheet with non-stick buttery spray.
• Melt butter, add the sugars and stir.
• Mix in the soda, salt, vanilla and beaten eggs.
• Stir in the flour.
• Stir in the crushed corn flakes.
• Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Form the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on baking sheet.  It should hold 12.
• Press the balls down lightly.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Cool on the sheet for 2 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 6 to 8 dozen, depending on the size of the balls.