Chocolate Chip Cookies

About 3 years ago I did baking at Blackheath Cooks for my birthday. We made many wonderful things, including cupcakes, with fantastic icing. Another thing I remember making were these COOKIES. The most memorable thing about them (apart from loveliness) was that they were so soft and gooey, like cookies SHOULD be: not biscuits, mind.
P.S - keep the last comment in mind when making these. Having two types of sugar and butter-like stuff might seem like faffing around but trust the professionals. I did, and you can guess from the above what I thought of these.

American-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 20 mins
Serves: 12 cookies... so, one maybe? :D
Cooking temp: Gas 4, 180C
Cooking time: 9-11 mins

Ingredients
185g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt (you can leave this out)
60g butter, room temperature
60g margarine
100g granulated white sugar
100g soft dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
100g chocolate chips... nice ones if you can get them. otherwise what's the point of going to the effort of two types of sugar?? Hmm???

Method

1. Heat the oven.
2. Mix the two sugars to a sandy consistency, then add the vanilla essence. Beat the butter and margarine in too, to a pale colour. 
   
3. Add the egg and beat it in well.
4. Next, pour in the flour, bicarbonate of s. and the salt. Mix well but do not over mix - it should not be frothy. We cooks are particular types. When everything is combined, stop mixing.
   
5. Stir the chocolate chips in.
   
6. It should be quite stiff. Drop large tablespoons (be generous! Mine made exactly 12 with large dollops each) of the mix onto a baking sheet, and leave room. They spread - A LOT. So unless you want one huuuge cookie, it might be best to do batches. (I did 3 batches of 4)

   

   You can use a cookie sheet (see other picture) or a good greasing of butter (above)

   
    
7. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden brown (you're not aiming for a healthy coal-black crust). When they first come out they will appear risen and puffy, but almost immediately they should deflate and flatten out to form a nice cookie shape.
   
   
   
   
8. Cool for 2 minutes and eat still warm... trust me, they will disappear. They are solid enough to pick up without breaking in about 5 minutes, but can you wait that long?

   

   A sense of scale!! (By the way, I have big hands)

N.B. The dough can be kept in the fridge for 3 days or frozen for a month... though how could you resist the temptation of just eating it there and then?!?! Unless you're cooking a few dozen batches, of course... then I'm on the same wavelengths as you...
Oh, and I almost forgot: a quick glance at the ingredients list will tell you that, like the Banoffee pie, this should be consumed in as much moderation as you can spare yourself.

Welcome to cookie towers :D