The chewiest, softest, most delicious chocolate chip cookies you will ever eat. There’s one (not so) secret ingredient that makes these cookies perfect. You’ll never need another chocolate chip cookie recipe again.
Let me tell you about my favorite cookies. Yep, these ones. I took one bite, and the first words, out of my mouth were, “I HAVE to have this recipe!”
So obviously this is not my own, but I did make some tweaks to it, like adding more vanilla and adjusting the baking time to get the perfect chewy chocolate chip cookie.
The recipe is actually from a woman who goes by the name Dee Dee, and she is the cookie queen! She literally bakes cookies every single day.
Even though I’ve never actually met Dee Dee, I did meet Lesha, and Dee Dee is Lesha’s Great Aunt. Dee Dee’s family actually made the sweetest video about her and her cookies, if you want to watch it!
The first time I had these cookies was when John and I were vacationing in Southern Utah (read about our Southern Utah/Northern Arizona adventures here) with his sister and brother-in-law's family. Lesha brought with her a few dozen of these chocolate chip cookies, and I couldn’t stop eating them!
In my opinion, the secret to these perfectly chewy cookies is the shortening. But, let’s take a moment to talk about how I feel about shortening. For starters, I never used to be a fan. Growing up on a dairy farm, I have always been a real butter kind of gal. And from what I can remember, my mom never really used shortening when I was younger, so I just never bought it myself.
Well, folks, things change (well, at least for this recipe), and I’m okay with that. When we returned from our trip, guess what I did, I bought butter flavor shortening to make these delicious cookies. And, by the way, you must use butter flavor shortening (even though it sounds kind of weird) because it has more flavor than regular shortening.
But, why shortening, you ask? Butter has a lower melting point than shortening. Butter is comprised of fat and water, while shortening is 100% fat from vegetable oils. Being that butter has a lower melting point, it starts to melt quicker than shortening, causing cookies to spread and flatten faster, resulting in a thinner, crisper cookie.
Cookies with shortening tend to be taller and chewier. It also has to do with gluten production when baking with butter versus shortening, but I’ll spare you those details. Just trust in the shortening… and me 🙂
Just to fill you in a little on my life. Last weekend, I hung out at the farm with a house full of guys… and my mom. A handful of my brother’s friends came out to help make sausage, go to a deer hunting expo, and, let’s be serious, drink lots of Busch and Busch Lattes (aka Busch Light).
We had plenty of ground beef, pork and venison in the multiple freezers out at the farm, so we made summer sausage, polish sausage, breakfast sausage, hot dogs, and brats. About 500 pounds worth, actually. We have a big family so it doesn’t take long to eat through all of it. And, some of it was for a couple other families.
We typically only have this sausage making party once a year. It’s a long day, about 8 hours, but it’s well worth it. Homemade hot dogs and sausage are 10X better than what you’ll find at the grocery store. In fact, I rarely buy any kind of meat from the grocery store, with the exception of chicken. On the farm, we raise our own organic beef and pork, so I have access to all the meat my heart desires. It’s the best.
I’m curious, where do you buy your meat… grocery store, butcher, local farmer? Let me know in the comments. One thing I’ve always wanted to do was create a website and storefront to sell our organic beef, pork, eggs, and milk. Doesn’t that sound awesome? Then you can make a batch of my Dee Dee’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, and dip them in an ice-cold glass of milk right from our farm! #GOALS
More of my favorite desserts:
- Fudgy Peppermint Mocha Brownies
- Peanut Butter Smores Brownies
- 4-Ingredient Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
- Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Pistachio Biscuits
- Super Easy Mini Strawberry, Brie, and Cream Cheese Galettes
Dee Dee's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup room temperature butter
- ½ cup butter flavor shortening
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Add butter, shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium-high for 2 minutes.
- Add eggs and vanilla to butter and sugar mixture, and beat on low just until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Using a sturdy spoon, mix together until combined. Mix in chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes. Remove from oven before cookies start to get golden on the edges, as they will cook more as they sit. This is the key to chewy cookies. Once removed from the oven, sprinkle with sea salt, and let sit for 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
- Serve warm with a glass of ice cold milk or let cool completely then store in an air-tight container for up to 1 week.
monika says
I understand the flavour would change, but if I were to use solely shortening, would the cookies bake up as they do when you use butter and shortening. Nothing against butter - it's just that I am OUT of butter. Thank you.