Easy Recipe: Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

After eliminating Crisco from my pantry, the first great dilemma to solve was how to achieve the perfect chocolate chip cookie with an all-butter dough. Not only did I solve this dilemma, but my solution made whipping up the dough even faster! I can now get three sheets of cookies into the oven in less time than it takes to preheat my oven to 375-degrees!

Browsing around, looking for what the internets had to say about non-flat all-butter cookies, I encountered the tip to actually melt the butter, then stir the sugars into the warm butter. According to the author of that tip (which I can’t find now), the sugar gets a little melted and caramelized this way, as well. I filed this away as a likely tip because my absolute favorite cookie, tall-but-chewy Molasses Sugar Cookies, calls for melting shortening instead of whipping it. Moreover, my friend’s recipe for Gingersnaps is literally the exact same recipe as my grandma’s Molasses Sugar Cookies, but the shortening is whipped instead of melted, and it is a crunchy cookie.

When I asked my Auntie Jan, our family cookie expert, she suggested I add more flour. I did that as well.

I made those two changes to my favorite basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, and now I have a winner of a cookie. Not only is it exactly the type of cookie I love, but since I melt the butter, I don’t have to worry about having butter at the right temperature before beginning. Moreover, I can mix it all together with a wooden spoon, so I don’t have to pull out or wash the hand mixer to make them. With these two advantages, I can whip out a batch, having it scooped and in the freezer with several minutes to spare before the oven is even preheated (that’s always the first thing I do).

It might even be better than the half-shortening, half-butter version I did before. If that can be. To take even these up a notch, substitute the chocolate chips for white chocolate and use macadamia nuts, or use 1/2 c. each of dark, milk, and white chocolate chips instead of semisweet.

Mystie’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 c. butter, melted
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. white sugar
• Beat together with a wooden spoon and a strong arm until well incorporated and the color lightens slightly.
• 1 egg
• 2 t. vanilla
• Beat with a wooden spoon and a strong arm. A well-beaten egg gives the cookie lift.
• 2 1/2 generous cups flour (you know me: we are not talking about leveled cups, here)
• 1/4 t. salt (or a restrained sprinkle, I used salted butter anyway)
• 1/2 t. baking soda (generous; if you’re the level-the-teaspoon type, I’d go with 3/4 t.)
• Mix until mostly-almost combined, then add:
• 1 1/2 c. chocolate chips
• 1 c. walnuts (optional)
• and finish incorporating, but don’t overmix anymore.
• Scoop onto cookie sheets and put the cookie sheet in the freezer for a couple minutes before baking at a 375-degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Or, cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes or more before scooping. It needs to be solid before baking; that’s the only drawback to starting with melted butter. If the cookie is soft going into the oven, it will spread too much and be flat and crispy.