From Scratch to Scrumptious

These chocolate chip cookies are super soft and buttery because of a secret ingredient: Butter-Flavored Crisco! Because it is a solid-shortening, it helps the cookies bake up fluffy and soft, unlike other all-butter recipes that often fall flat.

These are my husband’s all-time favorite cookie. Any time he has another cookie (whether store-bought or fancy bakery made), he turns to me and says, “I just wish I was eating your chocolate chip cookies.” Bake up a batch and wow your friend and family!

Too busy to do all the work of making a batch of cookie dough and baking all at once? Good news: for the best flavor, this dough should sit in the fridge for at least 1 day (if you can withstand the temptation!). Bake up a dozen or more cookies tomorrow and freeze the rest of the dough to bake from frozen later! I always have either baked cookies or cookie dough in the freezer. You never know when you will suddenly need an extra dozen chocolate chip cookies!

Butter-Flavored Shortening: Crisco (in the yellow container) is the brand-name for Butter-Flavored Shortening. Shortening is a vegetable-based fat that is solid at room temperature (unlike butter, which melts at room temperature).

Because shortening has a higher melting point, cookies using shortening will bake up taller than all-butter recipes. The outside bakes and sets before the shortening can melt, meaning that your cookie doesn’t spread out flat. Shortening also leads to a final product that is softer inside. 

Typical shortening is fairly bland, so to get that buttery flavor every cookie should have, I recommend using butter-flavored shortening for half of the fat and keeping the other half as butter.

At the time of this article, the large-size (48 oz) Crisco is cheaper than butter, even from Costco (which is the cheapest butter I’ve found) so it’s also comparatively frugal.

Butter: I use salted butter, but you can use whatever you have. Be sure it’s softened, meaning it has sat out at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Sugars: granulated sugar and brown sugar combine to whip up nice and fluffy during creaming.

Eggs: the binder in the cookie, any size egg will work just fine

Vanilla

Flour: all-purpose flour. To measure correctly, scoop flour into the measuring cup and level off the top. Alternatively, measure by weight with a digital kitchen scale.

Baking soda: the levening agent that makes your cookies rise

Salt: I always use table salt.

Chocolate chips: semi-sweet. Feel free to swap out for any kind of chocolate you’d like: milk, dark, or fancy cacao nibs! I buy the giant bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips from Costco because I probably use more chocolate chips than any normal person should.

The first, and most important step, in almost every cookie is creaming the fat and sugar. Creaming incorporates tiny air bubbles into the dough making your chocolate chip cookies extra soft and fluffy.

In this case, our fats are softened butter (set out at room temperature for 30 minutes) and room-temperature shortening.

Set your electric mixer to medium-high speed and cream the shortening, butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar for a good 3-5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Next, mix in the eggs and vanilla. Beat it until the eggs are completely mixed in.

While your mixture is creaming, you can mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to all the wet ingredients.

Lastly, add the chocolate chips! Be sure to “spill” a few chocolate chips on the counter for you or for any kids who hear the chocolate chip bag and come looking.

I like to stir the chocolate chips in by hand. The electric mixer is a bit rough and chops up the chocolate chips. Worse than that, I’ve had my mixer mash the chocolate right into the sides of the bowl. That was a huge pain to clean!

Do you need a break now? Just kidding. This rest is for the dough! You can scoop out the dough and bake right away if you need those cookies now. But even my husband, who can’t tell the difference between cinnamon and nutmeg, knows when I’ve skipped this step.

For the best flavor, I recommend refrigerating the dough for 24-48 hours (or at least overnight).

The creator of the chocolate chip cookie, Ruth Wakefield of Toll House Cookie fame recommended this waiting period for best flavor, and she was right! The cookies somehow seem saltier and more flavorful.

In addition to better flavor, you’ll get a better shape, taller and rounder. Cold butter in the dough takes longer to melt, allowing the outside of the cookie to bake before the dough has a chance to spread out flat.  

I truly love this step. I seem to have enough time to make a batch or chocolate chip cookie dough or to bake a batch of cookies, but rarely do I have time for both all at once!

To learn more about Dough Rest, read my article: Harness the Power of Laziness to Make the Best Cookies!

My favorite cookie size uses a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop (like this one: [amazon link]). I never feel bad if I eat 2 or more of these cookies because they’re so small! When I bake for a party or event, I usually go for the more traditional 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop, which is about the size of store-bought cookies. Baking directions for both sizes are included below.

Freezing the cookie dough makes your life easy when you suddenly need a couple dozen chocolate chip cookies. But even better than that, when you freeze the cookie dough pre-shaped, it retains the tall, round shape as it bakes. The outside bakes much more quickly than the inside, so there’s hardly any spread at all.

To freeze: scoop the dough into 1 1/2 Tablespoon or 1 Tablespoon sized balls. Place on a plate or cookie sheet in a single layer. Freeze for 4 or more hours. Remove from plate, and store tightly covered in a container or baggie.

When baking, place frozen balls of dough directly on ungreased cookie sheet and add 1 more minute to normal baking time.

If you want maximum softness and chewiness, watch your cookies closely. Remove cookies from the oven when they brown slightly along the bottom edge. Don’t let them brown on top or they will be crunchy throughout.

When cookies are first baked, they are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. As they sit, the moisture will redistribute so that the cookie will be evenly moist, soft and chewy throughout the whole thing! Let the cookies sit covered overnight for the softest cookies. But maybe eat just a few now. Who wants to wait?

Store tightly covered at room temperature.

Storage hack: Instead of stacking your cookies in a vertical stack in Tupperware, place the bottom layer standing on its side in a “horizontal stack”. Line cookies up with the tops facing the side of the container to fit more cookies in easily.

After baking and cooling, place your cookies in a covered container and freeze up to 4 months. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.