Chocolate Chip Cookies - The Perfect Recipe

Like my search for the perfect Margarita, I've baked a hundred chocolate chip cookie recipes trying to find the perfect one. About a year ago, I found it. Browsing Recipezaar, I came across a recipe someone found in Canadian Living Magazine. They are perfect. Just soft enough on the inside, but with a bit of crunch on the outside to make the whole thing worth your while. I adjusted the recipe a hair to add a bit more butter and less Crisco (yep...Crisco) than the recipe originally called for. Enjoy!

Canadian Living Magazine's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 cup softened butter
1/4 cup Crisco
1 cup white sugar
1/2 brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Beat together the butter, Crisco, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Mix together the flour, soda and salt. Add slowly to sugar/butter mixture. Beat until smooth and creamy. Add in chocolate chips. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Drop by the tablespoon full on a cookie sheet. Here's the trick... you now need to gently press each cookie down a bit in the middle, as shown here:


Bake for 12 minutes. When you take them out they will look under-done. But, the bottoms should be golden brown around the edges. Keep them on the cookie sheet for about 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a flat surface to cool. (I place a sheet of waxed paper out and let them cool the rest of the way there.)


On a side note, I was taking pictures of Ellie helping me mix together the cookies yesterday afternoon. I found the photo below. For my friend Rebecca and brother Phil who both enjoyed a few cookies here yesterday, I PROMISE this was taken AFTER the cookies where placed on the cookie sheets and baked.


Really, I promise, because...it's gross! (And for those of you that swear Ellie is exactly like me at that age, apparently she DOES have a bit of her father in her!)