For Thanksgiving David made the most amazing chocolate chip cookies ever. They were crispy but also chewy and just amazing. He said he browned the butter or something? Idk, I'm not a very good baker and his baking skills have far surpassed my own. So, I put him in charge of Christmas baking and asked him to make those cookies again and something else. He wants to make a cheesecake from scratch so I'm going to let him do his thing.
There is absolutely no way I would use shortening. I would substitute butter without a second thought. I bake literally thousands of cookies each christmas season and its butter all the way.
For Thanksgiving David made the most amazing chocolate chip cookies ever. They were crispy but also chewy and just amazing. He said he browned the butter or something? Idk, I'm not a very good baker and his baking skills have far surpassed my own. So, I put him in charge of Christmas baking and asked him to make those cookies again and something else. He wants to make a cheesecake from scratch so I'm going to let him do his thing.
Congratulations, you’ve won parenting. This is a dream come true!
Not the OP, but do you have a snickerdoodle recipe you'd share?
DS had some Snickerdoodle cookies last year and he could not get enough of them. We were at a party and didn't get the recipe. They were so chewy & soft. We've tried a few recipes at home they're not quite the same. None of our recipes called for shortening, so maybe that's where we went wrong.
I can't remember where these came from. Definitely someone on Food Network, but it's been too long and I don't have a link anymore. Anyway, these are chewy and delicious.
Ingredients:
• 2 ¾ C. All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• ½ tsp. Salt
• ½ C. Shortening
• 8 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter, Softened
• 1 ½ C. Sugar, Plus 3 Tbsp.
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.
With a handheld or standing mixer, beat together the shortening and butter. Add the 1 ½ cups sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and blend until smooth.
Mix the 3 tablespoons sugar with the cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll the dough, by hand, into 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar. Flatten the balls into 1/2-inch thick disks, spacing them evenly on unlined cookie sheets. Bake until light brown, but still moist in the center, about 12 minutes. Cool on a rack.
The recipe I use is from a Betty Crocker cookbook I have. If it’s not the same as this, it is very similar.
I prefer shortbread/all cookies with butter instead of shortening, so I'd personally switch it out (or just find a recipe that uses butter instead), but if you're trying to recreate a specific recipe, I'd make it as written with the shortening.
Personally, I'd do butter because while it changes both texture and flavor, I can always taste when a baked good uses shortening instead and it's never an improvement for me. My mom always did half butter half shortening in her toll house cookies. I put a stop to that, lol.