My Cookie Quest

My husband is a cookie monster sometimes he even turns blue and hairy! Since this is the case, and I always had a thing for big, blue, hairy monsters, I like to feed his cookie addiction.

This is actually a picture of him I took yesterday.

I prefer other sweets like: sugar cookies, pies, ice cream, cakes, brownies, puddings....you name it I love it....especially if it has fruit in it! Unfortunately, my husband being the good cookie monster he is, only really likes cookies....and really only chocolate chip cookies (though recently he has decided that peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are good, too). As such, I often make deserts...I am on this baking kick....and have to eat them all by myself, now I know this might seem like a good problem but for somebody who already has big hips and a rather large rear end....a whole pan of shortbread brownies, raspberry pie, or chocolate cake is definitely NOT a good thing (enter our neighbors: Jason, Danielle and Clayton, who usually get a rather large plate of goodies every week).

I usually try to bake my husband a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies every few weeks unfortunately, no recipe I have tried for chocolate chip cookies have ever been really good. I have tried dozens of various recipes which resulted in differing combination of sugars, baking sodas/powders and butter consistencies. Alas, the cookies would still turn out flat with burned crispy edges. I had even resorted to halving and quartering the recipe amount, so I could try that many more recipes. My cookie monster and I, were looking for a delightfully soft and fluffy cookie with equal doneness and not cookies that flattened like a pancake with crunchy edges.

My cookie quest continued until this past week when I watched an episode of, "Good Eats" on the Food Network channel where Alton Brown was exposing the varying secrets of chocolate chip cookies. He made 3 different types of chocolate chip cookies: crispy, fluffy and chewy. When I watched him make the fluffy cookie recipe, I knew it was the one (you know, kind of like when you tried on wedding dresses and found the perfect dress and you instantly knew it was the dress you were going to get married in)! Well, instantly I knew it was the cookie that I was going to marry....I mean make. The secret was simple really: butter flavored shortening in place of regular butter. I had thought of using shortening as a replacement for the butter, but was worried about having that waxy texture (like in buttercream icing). Also, I didn't realize that they even made butter flavored shortening....I mean imagine the concept...its brilliant really BUTTER FLAVORED FAT....its perfect, especially for a butter lover like myself!!!!!! Using the shortening allows the fat to melt slower than butter would and thus can hold its height and soft texture better than using better.

So here it is: the recipe that changed my life!

The Puffy Recipe:

• 1 cup butter-flavored shortening
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Hardware:

• Ice cream scooper (#20 disher, to be exact)
• Parchment paper
• Baking sheets
• Mixer

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the shortening, sugar, and brown sugar in the mixer's work bowl, and cream until light and fluffy. In the meantime, sift together the cake flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside.

Add the eggs 1 at a time to the creamed mixture. Then add vanilla. Increase the speed until thoroughly incorporated.

With the mixer set to low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the shortening and combine well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough. Scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 per sheet. Bake for 13 minutes or until golden brown and puffy, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool and store in an airtight-container.

Alton Brown you are my hero!!!!!