So...this recipe is actually adapted from the back of the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips bag, but I like to try my own little twists on it.  That is probably my favorite part about cooking.  You never have to settle for something that isn't quite what you want.  You have the freedom to mix it up and try just about anything.  Above all else, this recipe is a good starter dough for any chocolate cookie, so you can manipulate it any way you want.

Ingredients:

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C Hershey's unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 C butter (2.5 sticks) softened
• 2 C sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 C Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with a mixer until fluffy.
4. Add eggs (one at a time) and mix.
5. Add vanilla.  NOTE: For an interesting twist, use 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp almond extract.  This gives your cookies a little character and gives them a cherry-like taste (but not overpowering).
6. Beat the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla (and possibly almond extract) well.
7. Slowly add your flour mixture.  Key word there was "Slowly".  It really doesn't affect taste, but if you add it all at once I guarantee you will have cocoa powder EVERYWHERE!
8. Now comes the fun part!  Add your choice of chips.  For mine, I prefer to split up the 1 2/3 cups into peanut butter, white chocolate and dark chocolate chips.  It tastes great and gives your cookies something just a hair more unique.  Another interesting experiment is to just use dark chocolate chips and add chopped up candied or maraschino cherries and make a "Black Forest" cookie. This would be a great time to use the almond extract for that extra "cherry taste".
9. Take a cookie sheet and line with parchment.  NOTE: As I've said before, parchment is NOT wax paper and it is well worth every penny you pay for it.  You will have a perfect batch of cookies every time.  The only thing I would use (if you have one) is a silicone baking mat, but these are usually over-priced.
10. Decide on a size and then use a correctly sized measuring device.  I personally like BIG cookies, so I use an ice cream scoop.  It usually gives enough room for 6-8 cookies per sheet, assuming 1.5" arround each doughball so it doesn't hurt the shape of the other cookies.
11. Bake for 8-9 minutes (depending on what is in them...I recommend longer, possibly 10 if you have a lot of chocolate in them).  When done, the cookies will be soft.  This is, in fact, normal.  Simply leave the cookies to cool on the sheet, or move to a cooling rack or countertop.  NOTE: These cookies tend to be REALLY soft if you only bake 8ish minutes.  I recommend cooling completely on the parchment uncovered overnight.  This will help solidify the cookie and keep them from breaking apart too much.

Anyways...this is a short, but sweet recipe.  Tell me what you think...especially if you try out the "black forest" idea I proposed above.