Dalmatian Cookies

This is our family favorite holiday cookie for two reasons. First, we
have
a Dalmatian named "Beanie" and secondly, its one of my oldest son's
favorite
cookie. He is currently serving in the U.S. Army and is in
Afghanistan. He
has been there for almost a year. He missed our family Christmas in
2004,
but we are praying he'll be back in the US soon and able to be with us
for
this Christmas.

Ingredients:

4 ounces of white chocolate (I use Nestles Baking chocolate)
3/4 lbs of butter (3 sticks) softened
1 c. of white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 c. of flour (all purpose)
1/2 tsp. of salt
8 ounces of mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler. Beat butter, sugar and
vanilla until fluffy. Slowly add cooled chocolate. Mix dry ingredients
and
gradually add to butter/chocolate mixture until well incorporated.
Gently
add mini chips. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Using a small cookie
scoop,
drop by scoopful onto cooled un-greased cookie sheets. They will
flatten
while baking. Bake for 14-16 minutes. Be careful not to over bake as
chocolate will taste burnt. Cool completely on wire racks.

Note: These cookies ship pretty well, but are better shipped when the
weather gets cooler. They also freeze well and are very popular at
cookie
swaps. They don't taste like a traditional chocolate chip cookie. This
is an
egg-less cookie so the mixture will be slightly dry and crumbly.
That's why
I recommend using a scoop instead of a regular spoon. Plus the scoop
helps
to retain the "round mound" shape.

Submitted by: Laurie Anderson of NJ