This Is What Milk Was Made For

I have a new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  When I bake them I can't stop eating them!  The last time I made them I ate seven in one day.  That seems excessive. 

They are perfectly crispy but soft, and just buttery enough to drive you crazy.  The recipe is below, but you might want to consider sparing your waistline and walking away now.

I adapted the recipe from my Pie in the Sky cookbook.  If you love to bake and live at a high altitude, you should consider getting a hold of this book.

What makes these cookies work at high altitude?  Substituting shortening for some of the butter helps them not to spread too far, but leaves that yummy butter taste.  And adding a little extra flour to the batter strengthens the batter so it doesn't flatten out too much.  In my latest batch of cookies (pictured above) I measured the flour with too light of a hand, and you can see that the edges spread away from the chips in the center a little too much.  To avoid this problem, stir the flour in your bin to lighten it, then measure the flour by scooping the measuring cup into your flour bin and then level it with the back of a knife.  That should get you just the right measurement of flour for this particular recipe.

Here's the recipe.  Enjoy! (Note: you'll get better results if you soften the butter at room temperature for 30 minutes instead of trying to soften it in the microwave.)

High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Makes 48 cookies)

14 tbsp. butter, softened (2 sticks minus 2 tbsp.)

2 tbsp. shortening, room temp.

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cup + 1tbsp. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat the butter and shortening until combined.  Add sugars and beat until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Beat to combine well.  Add flour, baking soda, and salt.  Beat just until well combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon dough onto a parchment-covered baking sheet by the tablespoonful. Bake for 9-10 minutes, until golden. 

(Tip, if your cookies aren't done in 9-10 minutes, adjust the temperature on your oven slightly to try to correct them time.  For example, my cookies were taking 12 minutes, so I now set my oven to 380 degrees and cook for 10 minutes, and the cookies spread much less.)