chocolate chip cookies

Happiness on a plate :)

This recipe doesn’t need much explanation. It’s brought extra joy—especially on days that didn’t seem so wonderful.

I’ve found three main things to really help make chocolate chip cookies ‘extra.’ 1) Using shortening for height and softness 2) Adding cream of tartar for that cracked, bakery-style cookie appearance and 3) Adding more brown sugar than white sugar to the cookie dough mixture—it’s that extra layer of flavor and sweetness that makes a big difference. These are, soft, sweet, slightly salty and absolutely delicious.

This recipe makes a total of 13 cookies—it can be doubled, however, I’ve found this amount to be JUST right and not too overwhelming. Once you bake these a couple times—you’ll be able to do it in your sleep :)

I hope you try it out and enjoy!

Ingredients:

For a baker’s dozen

• 1 cup of all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate baking chips

• 1/2 cup of light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup of white sugar

• 1/3 cup of vegetable shortening, must be at room temperature

• 2 tablespoons of softened butter (not melted)

• 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

• 1 egg

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Very lightly grease your cookie/baking sheet with shortening.

• In a bowl, combine the all purpose flour, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar.

• In a different, separate bowl, beat the softened butter, shortening, white sugar and brown sugar. You can use a mixer or a spoon. (I used a spoon)

• Add the egg and vanilla extract to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix until evenly blended.

• Next, add the flour mixture to the blended butter/sugar/egg/vanilla. Mix everything together evenly.

• Add in the chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.

• Cover the cookie dough mixture and place in the refrigerator for an hour. (This helps with the texture and shape of the cookie)

• Once removed from the refrigerator, shape the cookie dough into balls, slightly over 1 ½ inches in diameter.

• Space the cookie dough balls at least 1 ½ inches apart.

• Bake for 13-16 minutes.

• Remove from the oven and let cool for at least ten minutes. (This is important, the cookies may break otherwise!)

• Serve with ice cream, milk, etc. And enjoy!