My Sweet Life: Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I wish I could truly tell you how yummy these cookies are!

Just taking them out of the oven my mouth was watering. Now, I've tasted lots of cookies; I used to work in a bakery and we even used to eat the frozen cookie dough! It was delicious. And of course, once they came out of the oven, we had to sample every type of cookie just to make sure that the customer was getting a quality product.

So, I wanted to try my hand at chocolate chunk cookies. I try to put a little gift inside each order that I fill as a thank you for ordering my product. I thought a nice chocolate chunk cookie (or two) would be perfect. I had tried many times to make my own chocolate chunk cookie recipe, but they were always too flat and spread out so much during baking. So, I tried a few different things this time.

Instead of butter or margarine, I used butter-flavored shortening! Who knew?! I did this only because I had no butter or margarine in my house (this is a SIN by the way, if you are a baker!) and I thought maybe the shortening would make the cookies hold their shape better.

Well, when I excitedly told my aunt (who is a fabulous taste-tester of my cookies) that I had come up with this idea, well, sadly... she told me that she and my uncle make chocolate chip cookies the same way. So, I guess I didn't invent the idea. But, whoever did is a GENIUS!!!

Here is the recipe I came up with:

2 cups butter-flavored shortening

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

4 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. clear vanilla extract (not imitation)

3 or 4 cups small chocolate chunks, depending on how much of a chocoholic you are (I used Nestle chocolate chunks)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together shortening and sugars with the paddle attachment of your mixer (a hand-held mixer should work fine too, although you might have to mix a little longer) until light and fluffy, using medium speed. Turn on low and add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in the extract and mix a little more. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Finally, stir in the chocolate chunks. ~~Take a few bites of dough to make sure it's good.~~ Roll into large balls of dough (a little bigger than golf ball size) and flatten just a little bit. Place on cookie sheets covered in parchment paper. Stick the cookie sheets in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes before baking. This helps the cookie keep it's shape. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until golden on top, depending on the size of the cookie.

This recipe will make 2 1/2 dozen large cookies. These are BIG cookies, around 4" across! You can divide this recipe in half if you don't want this many cookies. It does not change the consistency of the dough; I have tried it both ways.