You just can’t beat a classic! This is the kind of chocolate chip cookie that feeds your soul. It is my classic handed down from my momma CCC recipe and yes it has shortening. I usually try to avoid shortening but it is so worth the splurge in these cookies. The recipe works well all shortening or all butter but I typically go with half butter and half shortening.
Jump to RecipeMagical Mix Ins
Mix ins can transform these cookies is so may delicious ways….I have added everything from M&Ms to Skor bits to Oreo pieces. Add dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate or a bit of each of them! Be sure to sprinkle with sea salt at the end.
Add M&Ms according to occasion. Red and White for Canada Day!
Who can resist chocolate and peanut butter? Add Peanut Butter Cups to the top of the cookie balls and watch that peanut buttery goodness melt into the cookies!
The dough does not required chilling so you can make and bake right away. It does freeze well. Be sure to put aside some dough balls for freezing and you will thank yourself later. These frozen dough balls are my most requested treat. A bag of frozen dough balls is the gift that just keeps giving. Fresh cookies with no mess and in under 10 minutes! Bake the frozen dough balls at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. No guarantees they will make it to the oven because these dough balls mysteriously disappear from the freezer. Anyone else have a thing for raw cookie dough? Apparently, it is not a good idea to eat raw cookie dough but sometimes it is just too tempting and luckily no one here has gotten sick.
I prefer to bake Chocolate Chip Cookies on a foil lined cookie sheet. I find they brown up a little more around the edges than on parchment paper. I think you just just do what you know and and my mom always baked hers on foil so I do the same. Now for baking times…if you like crisp edges and gooey centre you should aim for around 9 minutes and remove the cookies from the baking sheet to a cooling rack after a minute or two. For more of a crispy cookie bake for closer to 10 minutes and leave to cool on the baking sheet. If you want an under baked gooey cookie (personal fave) you can bake around 8 minutes and move immediate to a cooling rack. No matter how you like your cookies this recipe delivers!
To get those beautiful ripples around the outside of the cookie, all you do is watch the cookies and once the dough begins to rise (around 6 minutes) you lift and drop one end of the cookie sheet in the oven so the dough falls. You continue to do this each time you see the cookies have risen back up (every minutes or two near the end of baking). It is called Pan Banging and it is genius!
Most common question…how do you get those big puddles of chocolate? I always keep a bit of the chocolate out of the dough and add it on top of the dough balls just before putting them in the oven. Same thing goes for chocolate chips, keep some on reserve to place on top of the cookie dough balls. You can also wait until the last couple of minutes and add some big chunks of chocolate or chocolate chips on top of your almost baked cookies. It doesn’t take long for them to melt and you can use a toothpick to spread out the melted chocolate to get those nice puddles of chocolate.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!!
Recipe
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter or shortening melted
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped chocolate
- sea salt for sprinkling (optional)
- ½ cup optional mix ins (M&Ms, Skor bits, Rainbow Chips)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Combine melted butter/shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar.
- Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Add flour, baking soda and salt and beat until combined.
- Stir in chocolate chip, chopped chocolate and mix ins, if using.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges start to turn golden.
- Sprinkle with sea salt.
- Move cookies to a cooling rack.
