Nothing is more comforting and cozy than coming home to the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen. But the goodness doesn’t end with the sweet aroma. The smooth texture of the cookie combined with the decadent goodness of the chocolate — mmmm, is your mouth watering yet? Mine is!
I am a self-proclaimed “sugar head”, so naturally I love to bake cookies as much as I like to eat them. Because of this passion of mine, chocolate chip cookies have become a staple in our home. My kids think of me when they smell cookies baking. I guess I could be known for worse things.
Throughout my 28 years of baking chocolate chip cookies (I’m not sure if this is something to brag about), I tweaked the recipe to create cookies that have become quite popular among my friends and family.
When Heather and I started flipping houses we both agreed that THE COOKIES needed to be a part of the Souled Home Design staging process. To us, cookies represent home. We take turns baking them, so the cookies are always yummy and fresh. We found it is worth the effort to give buyers that nostalgic feeling.
Before the house can be listed on the real estate market, our realtor hires a photographer to take amazing photos that showcase the home in a way that brings our vision to life. We make sure THE COOKIES are ready for the photo shoot. Our husbands question if this is a waste of our precious time. I mean, do people even notice a platter of cookies when they are swiping through photos looking for their perfect house?
The photographer is generally a phantom that shows up to the vacant home unnoticed. He uses the lock box to enter the home, takes fabulous shots, and then the photos mysteriously show up on the listing a couple days later.
When Heather was selling her own family’s home she was present when the photographer arrived at her house. While shooting photos, he noticed the perfect plate of THE COOKIES on the table. The photographer instantly connected all of our flip houses he had photographed. He said, “I recognize these cookies!”. So, even though he didn’t know us, he knew THE COOKIES.
Souled Home Design had an unexpected benefit from THE COOKIES - To our surprise the cookies have become the face of our business.
Flash forward a few months when Heather and I were touring a home with a real estate agent prior to a staging job. In the midst of a conversation about the housing market, we got on the topic of our most recent flip. It turned out that two of his clients made offers on it, but both were outbid. He didn’t know us, but he knew THE COOKIES. He quickly associated our business to all of our other flip houses that he toured with his clients in the past.
So Heather and I continue baking batch after batch of cookies for our flip houses. We feel confident that people notice, and it does matter! Since Heather and I are both introverts, we are happy to have THE COOKIES serve as the face of Souled Home Design.
If your mouth is still watering, keep an eye out for the completion of our next flip. We will have THE COOKIES ready for you!
But if you can’t wait that long…
THE COOKIES Recipe:
Preheat oven 350 degrees
Dry Mix:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Mix together in a medium sized bowl and set aside
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In a large bowl combine:
1 stick butter flavored Crisco
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
Cream together
Gradually stir in dry mix
When mixture smooth stir in
2 cups #Nestletollhouse Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
Place 1 inch balls of cookie dough about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet
Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Remove from oven when edges start to become golden. Let rest on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before placing cookies on a cooling rack.
Take a photo and tag Souled Home Design!
Enjoy!
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