Chocolate chip cookies are a favorite among many people. This is because they are so delicious and simple. Fortunately, they are simple to make as well. Here we will tell you how to make delicious chocolate chip cookies.

First, you will need to cream together 2 sticks of butter with 3/4 cups sugar and 3/4 cups brown sugar. You can use shortening instead or part shortening and part butter if you don’t have enough butter.

Next, add in 2 eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla. Mix it together very well, but you don’t need to beat it for any length of time. You can use an electric mixer, stand or hand, if you have one and want to make it easier.

Now, in a separate bowl, add 2 1/4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix it together thoroughly. Make sure there are no lumps.

Gradually add the flour mixture, about 1/2 cup at a time, to the wet ingredients. If you are using an electric mixture, use the dough hook to mix in the flour because it will start to get tougher and the paddle won’t work as well.

After the flour is mixed in, stir in 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips. This is equal to 1 12 oz. bag. Stir it in and then put the dough in the refrigerator to chill. Chill it until the dough is harder, at least 2 hours. This will allow for cookies that hold their shape better.

When the dough is chilled, roll it in to 1 to 2 inch balls and place them two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them in the oven at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size. Make sure the cookie sheets are cooled before you put the next batch on so that they don’t melt flat on the pan before they get in the oven.

Remove them from the oven and let the pan cool for about 3 minutes. Use a spatula to remove them from the cookie sheet and then place them on a wire rack to cool. Serve them warm with milk or let them cool completely and store them in a cookie jar for later.

If you are having a problem like this, try using different shortenings in the same recipe. For a true test make the chocolate chip cookies at the same time and keep the recipe identical. Making the same number of cookies from each recipe is also necessary. Do tests using butter, margarine, solid shortening, butter flavored solid shortening and a lard recipe. All shortenings should be at room temperature when mixing. You will notice a difference right away in the feel of the cookie dough. After baking, a noticeable difference is apparent in the appearance of the cookies; something to remember if you want a nice presentation. Taste each cookie while warm and also when they are cold. Crispness and crunchiness are more apparent in the cold cookies. Be sure to drink water in between each taste.

The first chocolate chip cookies to mix up should be a butter vs margarine. You will notice that the butter dough is soft, while the margarine dough is almost too soft to handle. Now this could vary depending on which brands of butter and margarine used. Some have more of a water content than others. After baking, you will immediately notice that both cookies made with butter and margarine lost their shape while spreading. A taste will reveal a richer flavor in the butter cookies. Also the butter seems to enhance the flavor of the chocolate chips. An aftertaste seems to linger from the margarine cookies. Cookies made with the butter produces the chewiest ones.

The lard recipe makes a dry cookie dough. Lard is the fat from pigs and used to be very popular in home baking. It is still the choice in shortening in many countries and makes very good pie crust. Although the cookies taste good, lard just does not have the flavor like butter does for those chocolate chip cookies. The spread of the cookies is even greater than the butter and margarine thus diminishing the appearance.

The cookie dough using solid shortening is firm but not dry like the lard. The most noticeable characteristic is apparent while baking. The cookies become puffier with less spread, which makes a nice appearance for presentation. The taste is good but not as good as chocolate chip cookies made with butter, lard or margarine. Using the same brand of solid shortening but with imitation butter flavor added, produces different results. The dough is a little softer, but the appearance of the baked cookies is about the same. The biggest difference comes in the taste, not rating near as good as the butter, lard, margarine or plain solid shortening. Both of the solid shortenings produce the crispiest cookies.