Cooking School: Cookie Basics

Basic Cookie Dough:
The recipe below is a combination of a few recipes. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

2 and 1/2 cups flour (a little more than this is BETTER than a little less)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon corn starch (optional!! It offers your cookies a “soft baked” quality)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup shortening (butter flavored)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs (if you have time, convert this to 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk)
2 cups (or 2 packages) milk chocolate chips*

1. Place butter and shortening in bowl. Mix until combined.

2. Add brown sugar, white sugar (also referred to as granulated sugar), eggs, and vanilla. Mix until just combined.

3. Add flour. Sprinkle salt, baking soda and baking powder on top of flour. Mix dry ingredients with butter mixture until just combined.

4. Add chocolate chips and mix until combined.

5. Chill the dough for 2 hours (at least). If you are DYING to have cookies right now, go ahead and bake the fresh dough. It won’t hurt anybody.

6. Using a large spoon, scoop dough out, shape into balls, and bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

*If you are adding other mix-ins, add 2 cups total of any combination of mix-ins you choose.

(If you want the spreadsheet that lists the many chocolate chip cookie recipes, email me or leave a comment below.)