Kick Ass Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Sift together flour and baking soda, set aside
-In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar
-Beat in instant pudding mix until blended
-Stir in eggs and vanilla
-Blend in the flour mixture
-stir in chocolate chips
-Drop cookies by rounded spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets
-Bake for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven, edges should be golden brown


NOTES:
-eggs can be replaced by 1/4 cup of applesauce per egg. I added 1.5 minute bake time when replacing the eggs
-recipe says that any flavor of pudding mix can be used (I have only used vanilla)
-1 cup chopped walnuts are in original recipe...but I hate nuts in cookies, so I leave them out...
- last Christmas I made a batch with butterscotch chips, white chips, and milk chocolate chips (2 total cups of chips)...and it turned out really good!

(original recipe received from allrecipes.com)