Delish Thursday: Chocolate Chip Cookie Day Is Tomorrow!

Hi Friends! 

Tomorrow is Aug. 4, one of the best days of the year!  It’s National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!!

According to Wikipedia, “The chocolate chip cookie was invented by American chef Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1938. She invented the recipe during the period when she owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts.

Wakefield stated that she was trying to give people something different. So she came up with Toll House cookies. She added chopped up bits from a semi-sweet chocolate bar into a cookie. 

The original recipe in Toll House Tried and True Recipes  is called "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies". Wakefield gave Nestle the recipe for her cookies and was paid with a lifetime supply of chocolate from the company." 

I know I, for one, am very grateful to Ms. Wakefield. Chocolate chip cookies are one of my MOST FAVORITE things to eat.   

I made my first batch of cookies, solo, when I was 9-years old. I confess that they must not have been too tasty because my mom’s friends, who happened to be visiting her at the time, politely took a taste of the cookies and didn’t finish them.   

Later, as I grew, I gained more experience and learned how to make a mean batch of cookies. I really enjoyed making the dough, but didn’t particularly like standing over the hot oven baking them, so I made a deal with my little brother, Andy. I would make the dough, and he would bake the cookies. And he could eat as much cookie dough as he liked! Our arrangement worked well for years!  

As a mom, I made countless batches of cookies. Having raised four always-hungry sons, I liked to have a batch of warm cookies waiting for them when they came home from school, hungry and tired, and usually with several friends in tow.

I remember those years with fondness, especially when I’m pulling a batch of cookies out of the oven. And somehow my brother Andy and my boys have a magical sense of when I am making cookies because one of them usually shows up about the time that I’m taking the cookies out of the oven!

Today, I am going to share my husband’s favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is made with (gasp, what?!?) butter-flavored shortening instead of butter. But trust me, these cookies are delicious! Perhaps I’ll make some right now and see who comes by!

HAPPY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DAY!!!  

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Yield: 3 dozen 

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar 
• 3/4 cup butter-flavored shortening 
• 1-2 Tablespoons milk*
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (just under 1 cup)
• 1/2 package milk chocolate chips (just under 1 cup)* 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.   
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the brown sugar, shortening, milk and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Mix in the egg.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking soda.  Mix into the creamed mixture just until blended.
4. With a spoon, stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Drop tablespoons full of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Do not overcrowd the cookies.
6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool for several minutes before removing from the pan. 

 Note: 

*I start with 1 Tablespoon of milk. If the dough seems dry after mixing in the flour, add the other Tablespoon. If the egg is a large or jumbo egg, 1 Tablespoon of milk should be enough.

*For a truly Toll House Cookie taste, add only semi-sweet chocolate chips, doubling the amount of the semi-sweet chips and leaving out the milk chocolate chips.

Delish Thursday is a KDXU weekly feature written by local St. George culinary expert Laura Squires. Laura doesn't have a restaurant or bakery, but if you've ever tasted her food, you know that she is one of the best food artists in the world! Laura has been a resident of Southern Utah for  more than 30 years.