Monday 30 July 2012

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Awhile ago I said I was going to go through and post about my 3 favourite chocolate chip cookie recipes. Unfortunately, I think my list has now changed yet again as I've tried out more and more recipes. But, while this recipe may no longer be in my top 3, I still felt like I had to share it because these cookies do have a unique flavour (due to all shortening / no butter and all brown sugar / no white) and I did promise earlier that I would reveal my top 3 of that point in time. So here it is.

On a much sadder note, you may have noticed that there is no images for this post. Well I have a good excuse (and no it's not camera problems or bad pictures). I'd just rolled out the cookies all perfectly and got them lined up nicely on the cookie sheets while the oven was preheating. Now because I use the convection, I don't really have to preheat but bear with me. So the oven was at about 270 on it's way to 375 and I had just opened the door to put the first tray of these lovely cookies in and this absolutely awful sound came from the oven. The digital controls also dimmed right down and at first I thought we'd just had a brown out, but the overhead lights were on and they didn't flicker at all. But then again, the awful grinding / frying electronics sound that was emitted from the oven wasn't your typical (or healthy oven) sound. After fiddling around with it for a bit I decided to throw the cookies in anyways because according to the thermometer it looked like the temperature was still rising. It was at 280 and so I set the timer for 7 minutes because the recipe said 8-10 and I figured because it wasn't at 375 it would take almost the full amount of time (even though the convection usually cooks way quicker). So the buzzer goes off after 7 minutes and the digital thermometer only said 340 (which isn't right, it should have got up to temperature by that time, so I'm positive now that something isn't right). Well I opened the door and my cookies were perfectly (and evenly) dark, dark brown. And I mean, you know that golden that you talk about seeing a hint of around the edges of a cookie to know they are done, well these cookies were that colour everywhere. But upon touching them they still seemed really doughy (just the texture that I would pull them out of the oven at on a normal day). An important thing to note is that these cookies really aren't supposed to brown much if at all. So I tried them and they tasted normal, they just didn't look so swell. I don't know what's happened to the oven, it seems like the fan wasn't spinning properly on the convection and maybe something to do with the thermostat, but I don't know for sure. All I know was that the sound that I heard was a really nasty sound. So now will you forgive me for not posting a picture of these cookies?

This recipe can be found on the box of the Golden Crisco.

Makes: 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients

3/4 C. Golden All-Vegetable Shortening (Crisco)
1 1/4 C. Brown Sugar
1 Egg
2 Tbsp. Milk
3 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
1 3/4 C. Flour
1 Tsp. Salt
3/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 1/4 C. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
3/4 C. Milk Chocolate, chunked

Directions

~Preheat oven to 375 F.
~In mixer bowl, cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.
~Add in egg, milk and vanilla and beat well to combine.
~Mix in flour, salt and soda, and beat.
~Stir in chocolate.  
~Scoop dough onto cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes (for soft cookies) or 11-13 minutes (for crunchy cookies).
~Cool slightly on sheets and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Enjoy

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