Old Fashioned Chocolate Chippers
Shortening vs Butter
I’ve been making Chocolate Chip Cookies for many years using the original Toll House Recipe. I don’t know if my memory is failing me but I don’t remember a butter option … The recipe called for shortening and a teaspoon of water. No longer.
Often we develop cookie (other foods too) taste and texture preferences early on and we tend to go back to these over and over. You may prefer a chewy chocolate chip cookie while another prefers a crispy one and still another may even prefer a Chips Ahoy.
Butter and shortening may be used interchangeably in this homemade cookie recipe but know the results will be very different. There is nothing like a butter taste but I enjoy a taller cookie that is hard to achieve with butter unless the dough with butter is refrigerated until firm before baking. And still there is a chance if baked just a little too long the cookie will be crispy. I have a taller chewy cookie preference but not too tall. I solve this by using half butter and half shortening. I’ve become accustomed to using salted butter for cookie making. Options for no salt butter were not often available many years ago. And since shortening has no salt I add just a pinch more salt.
The chocolate chips used are equally important. The choices today are pretty varied. Since I grew up on one particular type, the only one available except for a waxy knock off, it’s my choice to this day. Use the chocolate chips you and your family like best.
It has been my experience too that the baking makes a big difference in texture. Most old recipes call for a 375 degree F oven. I like to knock this down to 325 degrees … baking a little longer and removing the cookies at the right moment, a slightly golden brown. Any longer and the cookies will become crunchy when cooled to room temperature.
Hope you enjoy comparing some old recipes for this Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookie. And just maybe trying something a little bit different.
