Traditional Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies (Like David's Mom's)

David's Mom makes great Chocolate Chip Cookie bars. She uses the recipe from the Nestle Chocolate Chip bag, substituting shortening for half the butter. This improves the texture when making chocolate chip cookies as bars. She mixes her dough with a heavy-duty mixer. If you don't like the flavor of shortening in cookies but still want improved texture for bar cookies, try using 1/4 cup shortening or high-quality lard and 3/4 cup butter.

This recipe is very similar to the Nestle recipe, but uses more brown sugar and less granulated sugar, 1/4 cup more flour, less salt and less soda. See notes at bottom of the recipe.

The recipe below may be conveniently halved. If baking as bars, bake a half-recipe in a 9 x 9 inch baking pan. Or a 9 x 13 inch pan for thinner bars.

To use this recipe to make all-butter drop cookies, reduce the flour to 2 1/4 cups and add 1/2 teaspoon water with the vanilla. (Per The Best Recipe, the original Toll House Cookie recipe contained a little water). Unsalted butter may produce better results than salted butter. Substitute an extra stick (1/2 cup) of butter for the shortening in the recipe below.

I prefer not to use the full amount of chocolate chips in most chocolate chip cookie recipes from chocolate chip packages. I think they want to sell more chocolate chips. Less than a cup of chocolate chips or chunks is fine with me. Easier to taste the non-chocolate part of the cookie. I do like nuts in these cookies.

Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening (room temperature)
1/2 cup butter, (softened but not squishy)
1/2 cup granulated sugar or superfine sugar*
1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt **

1/2 cup to 2 cups (12 ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks
Up to 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the shortening and butter on high speed for 30 seconds. Add the sugars. Beat until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla until combined.

Sift baking soda into some of the flour, combine with the rest of the flour and the salt. Beat in as much of the flour as you can into the creamed ingredients with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour. Stir chocolate pieces and nuts, if desired, into dough.

Bar Cookies

Press dough in a 10 x 15 x 1 (at least) inch baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden. Cool on a wire rack and cut into bars. Makes about 48 bars. For thinner bars, use a 10 x 17 inch jelly roll pan, a 11 x 17 inch half sheet cake pan or half hotel sheet and bake a few minutes less.

Drop Cookies

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 1 or 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack with a metal spatula. Makes about 60 cookies.

Cookie Pizza

Prepare dough as above, but do not add chocolate chips. Press dough into two ungreased 12-inch pizza pans. Sprinkle half of chocolate chips and nuts on dough in each pan. Press in lightly. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, until golden. Meanwhile, melt about 4 ounces white chocolate baking pieces or cut-up white baking bar. Drizzle over baked cookie pizzas. Cut each into 8 wedges, then cut a middle circle. Makes 32 pieces.

* Most traditional chocolate chip cookie recipes use 3/4 cup each brown and white sugar. Granulated and superfine white sugars may be measured the same. Superfine sugar produces a finer texture, which may or may not be an advantage in this recipe.

** Many similar recipes include an entire teaspoon of salt plus an entire teaspoon of soda, even though there is not sufficient acid (mainly from brown sugar) in the recipe to react with an entire teaspoon of soda. Some people may prefer the saltier flavor from a full teaspoon of salt and soda. The Better Homes and Gardens recipe upon which the recipe above is based contains no salt, but I think a little makes the cookies taste better. You may wish to increase salt to 1/2 teaspoon if using unsalted butter. An alternate recipe substitutes chopped, salted peanuts for chocolate chips, which would negate the need for extra salt.