There’s not much that tastes better than a cookie straight out of the oven. And unlike most of the things I’ve been cooking lately, cookies are something I’ve been making for years and years.
No secrets here. I just follow the recipe that’s on the back of pretty much every Nestle Toll House bag. I use Crisco instead of butter. Why? Because that’s how my mom always did it, which made me wonder what the difference between butter and shortening really is.
While I don’t think shortening is actually any healthier, it does seem to make a difference in the texture of the cookies. I’ve used actual butter once or twice, and while the cookies taste more buttery (obviously), they come out kind of flattened. With shortening, they come out fluffier. Actually, fluffier is probably not the right word, but they are definitely less dense. I like ’em better that way, and I don’t miss the butter flavor.
I found this blog entry this morning that explains why, if you’re curious. (The difference is primarily that butter has some water in it and a lower melting point, while shortening does not. Cooking = science! Hooray for science!)
I’ve used that recipe a hundred times, but often substitute different kinds of chips, which can really change the cookies. I haven’t done anything truly crazy, but I’ve made this same recipe using butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, M&Ms, white chocolate chips, and Andes mint chips. Maybe some others that I can’t remember, too. Anyway, this time I used half a bag of peanut butter chips and half a bag of chocolate chunks. You can also add nuts if you want, though I usually don’t.
The recipe says to bake for 9-11 minutes. For years, I always had to bake for more like 8 minutes. I would inevitably forget this, and end up toasting the first pan a bit too much. Apparently this was due to my many crappy electric apartment ovens that ran hot. Ever since we moved into the house with our awesome gas oven (with digital temperature gauge!), these cookies come out perfect after exactly 10 minutes.
Yum!
I always put my cc cookie dough (made with butter) in the fridge overnight. They come out perfect- not too flat or dense. Of course, you can’t just make them and eat them in the same day, but maybe a try it if you have time thing. I’m anti-shortening in general, but won’t say I never use it (pie crusts mostly).
I have heard.. though can’t claim insight to as I tend to burn all baked things.. that it really makes a difference if you use solid, though soft, stick butter and mix it in or if you melt hte butter first and mix it in. Sounds like the solid butter works a lot better.
As I said, the last batch of cookies I made are still resulting in me getting made fun of 9 months later.
More important question, did you bring any to work?
I did bring them to the office…and they were gone by 12:30. Sorry!
These pictures are making me hungry. I haven’t made chocolate cookies from scratch in ages. Maybe that will be a spring break project. And when you over crisp the first batch of cookies then oh well you’ll just have to eat those so you won’t give them to anyone else.
I’m the most impressionable blog reader ever and just took my last pan of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.
I grew up with the Toll-house recipe made with margarine and do like that texture better. When I tried my husband’s version I thought the big difference was that he melted the butter to get to the cookie making faster, like Becca mentioned. But even with soft butter they aren’t the same as good old margarine. (We use butter now just because we have it in the fridge.)
Obviously I now need to make more cookies so I can do a proper test of shortening vs butter vs margarine! That sounds like a yummy test to me.