Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that I am really into baking. I LOVE baking. If I could start a business and make cookies and cupcakes and such and make a living off of it, I would do it in a heartbeat. When we lived in Manhattan, I dabbled for a while in selling baked goods at the Farmers' Market, but there were already several big booths do that, so I really wasn't making any money off of it. It sure was fun though!

Here's my current love affair: chocolate chip cookies. I found this recipe on the Domestic Pursuits blog that I like to follow, and it is by far the best recipe for simple chocolate chip cookies that I've found to date. It's a little different that your usual recipe on the back of the package of chocolate chips: it calls for a combo of butter and shortening instead of one or the other, and it uses extra brown sugar instead of equal parts brown and white sugar. I've changed it a tad and I put in a little extra vanilla, because I've always done that and I like the taste. Don't add too much extra vanilla though, or the cookies get a little runny and crisp up too much around the edges.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 package (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Preheat oven to 375 F.
*Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
*In a mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening, brown sugar and sugar together until creamy.
*Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla.
*Beat in flour mixture gradually.
* Stir in chocolate chips.
*Drop by rounded spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets.
*Bake 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown. (I almost always bake them for 10 minutes, unless I'm making bigger cookies. This leaves them a little soft in the middle. I'm not a big fan of crunchy cookies, but if you are, leave them in a little longer.
*Cool for two minutes on cookie sheet before removing.

Enjoy!