1 stick of butter
1 cup of sugar (white or brown, depending on what flavor you want)
1 egg (or 1/4 c. egg substitute)
2 tsp baking soda
2 c. flour
Cream butter & sugar. Mix in egg thoroughly. Mix in soda, then stir in the flour gradually. The dough should be fairly stiff. If you bake these for 8 minutes, they will be chewy, 10, slightly crisp, 15, very crisp.
Now, on to the fun part – flavorings.
I add my flavorings after the butter & sugar are creamed but before I add the flour.
For Lemon Ginger:
2 tsp lemon extract
3 heaping tsp powdered ginger
For “Spiced Rum”
1 tsp Artificial Rum flavoring
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
For Coconut
Add extra 1/2 stick of butter at beginning
Add 1 c. shredded cocount to dough during the stage of adding flour
Two tablespoons of actual rum, not rum flavoring is a nice addition.
If you add a cup of chopped almonds and a teaspoon of natural almond extract, the result is not unlike almond shortbread cookies.
For a chocolate cookie, I recommend about 1/4 black cocoa powder, 2 tsp vanilla, & 1 tsp cinnamon. The cinnamon is not strictly necessary, but it is very nice. If you want a more subtle flavor you could scale that back to 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon.
Your discretion and creativity can take this basic cookie recipe and turn it into just about any reasonable cookie flavoring.
If you want to get really gonzo, I suppose you could get good and drunk or high and then do your baking, but I will not be held responsible for the results.