I have devised a way to make 2…no, 3…no, I can make 4 Cookies from just one recipe. Smart and Easy!
I love it when I can make more than one type of cookie from one recipe. My recipe makes four different cookies…a regular chocolate chip cookie, a chocolate dough chocolate chip cookie and a half and half cookie. And it gets even better! Sandwich them together with almond frosting and you have a fourth cookie. You’ll think you’re in chocolate chip cookie heaven with all these choices!
Sometimes I even like to double this recipe and make 8-10 dozen individual cookies. After baking the cookies, I split them up so that I have 2 dozen sandwich cookies (using 48 individual cookies), 2-3 dozen chocolate dough chocolate chip cookies and 2-3 dozen regular chocolate chip cookie dough cookies. That makes plenty to share with nieces and nephews, and a few for my freezer.
This recipe makes 4-5 dozen individual chocolate chip cookies, using a 1 ½ T scoop.
Preheat the oven to 375F degrees.
Prep your baking sheets:
Line 4 baking sheets with parchment paper. This helps the cookies slide off the pans and makes cleanup easier.
Gather up your Ingredients:
2 ¼ C Flour, plus ¼ C flour
1 t Baking soda
½ C Butter, soft
½ C Shortening, white (not butter flavored)
1 C Brown sugar
½ C Sugar
3 t Vanilla extract (not the flavoring)
2 Eggs
2 T Cocoa powder
1 C Ghirardelli, dark chocolate chips (60% cacao)
1 C Toll House, mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Get mixing:
- Sift the 2 1/4 C flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside. Keep ¼ cup of the flour separate in case you need to add later.
- With an electric mixer, beat the sugars, butter and shortening together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add and beat in the eggs, one at a time just to incorporate, scraping the sides after each egg.
- Beat in the vanilla extract just to combine. Scrap down the sides and stir in.
- Add the dry ingredients (not the cocoa) slowly and beat to incorporate.
- If you want to make two different doughs (one regular and one chocolate dough), split your dough in half, putting one half of the dough into another bowl. Otherwise, start scooping your dough onto your baking sheets. Make sure to keep the dough balls about 2" apart on your cookie sheets.
- To make the half and half cookie dough, add the cocoa powder by sifting it into one bowl of dough and stir to combine, making the chocolate cookie dough. Usually, cocoa powder has may have tiny lumps in it, so it’s best to sift it in before stirring.
- Add 2 T of the left-over flour into the other bowl. This will the be the original chocolate chip cookie dough. Stir until combined. If you think you need it all, stir it all in completely.
Get baking plain dough cookies or half and half cookies:
- To make the half and half cookies, fill your cookie scoop about half full with one dough. Then scoop enough of the other color dough to fill the scoop. I usually scrap it off even. This way I know all the full scoops will make the same size cookies. This is helpful especially if I plan to make sandwich cookies. Then I know they will all be pretty much the same size, especially the same size in circumference or diameter.
- Place the scoops 2 inches apart for baking.
Some people like to Test Bake:
- Test bake the dough by placing one or two cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes. Take the pan out and let the cookies continue to bake on top of the stove for 2-3 more minutes. If the cookies look good, continue to bake the rest of the cookies. If they come out too flat, you may need a little more flour in the cookie dough. - Go ahead and stir more in, 2 tablespoons at a time. If they bake up and do not flatten at all, stir in a tablespoon or more of heavy cream and bake the rest of your cookies. If the cookies spread out all over the cookie sheet, you may have forgotten to add the right amount of flour to begin with. If the dough is too hard, you may have added too much flour.
- I usually bake my cookies for 7 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees, since my oven bakes a little hotter in the front of the oven. (Your oven may bake differently.) Then I bake the cookies for 2 more minutes, taking the pan out of the oven to continue baking on the pan for 3 more minutes on top of the stove.
- Move the cookies to cooling racks to completely cool.
- Do NOT overbake or they could become dry and not store very well.
Sandwich cookies:
- To make sandwich cookies, I use my favorite homemade almond flavored frosting. It goes very well with these cookies. - Choose your own frosting - chocolate, strawberry, lemon or vanilla.
- Spread your frosting on the flat side of one cookie and add another cookie to make a sandwich.
- Be creative! Spread the frosting way out to the edges and have the kids roll the cookies in sprinkles. Have fun with the creation of your own personal sandwich cookies.
Storage:
- As soon as the cookies have cooled completely, I place a dozen on a plate and seal in a plastic bag. They stay nice and chewy in the plastic bag. Extras go in the freezer.
- To freeze, as soon as they have cooled, I store in a sealable plastic bag and store that bag in a second sealable plastic bag. They freeze well up to a month or so. They may last even longer in the freezer, but they’re usually all eaten up well before the first month has passed.
- To store sandwich cookies, I keep a few in a sealable plastic bag. The rest go in the freezer.
- To store sandwich cookies in the freezer, I wrap them individually in plastic wrap, then in a sealable plastic bag. That makes them easy to grab and go!
This is a fun recipe to make for your family, friends, and freezer. Get the kids involved making and learning about splitting up the dough to make two different types. Then let them slather on the frosting for sandwich cookies. Have fun and “Bake your own Memories!”
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