Chocolate Chip Cookie Week: Cort's Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie

In honor of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day last week, and National Baking Day, I have put together my 5  favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes-one for each day of the week- because, let's face it- who doesn't need to make 5 batches of chocolate chip cookies in one week.

This list is 23 years in the making, since I've been on the quest to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie since I was 9. True, they may not be perfect, but I've come consistently close to celestial cookie bliss with them.  

Chocolate chip cookies were the first thing my mom taught me to bake, or cook for that matter. I was in 3rd grade, living in Kingwood, Texas, and that single recipe shaped the course of this girl's life- emotionally, spiritually, as I get gracefully get older, physically. I might be exaggerating , but not really because I have a deep emotional attachment to cookies. I love them. I love baking them. I love eating them. I love sharing them, tweaking recipes, thinking about them, talking about them. I love them.


So, I'm kicking off the week with the Cort's Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.

This is the first chocolate chip cookie recipe I ever made, and it was the only one we made growing up. These are the cookies my dad used every Sunday to bribe his class of 16 and 17-year-olds to listen to the Sunday School lesson. They were affectionately called "Cortney Cookies" when I was in high school and I made them all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've created object lessons around these cookies, just so that I could bake them!

I firmly believe that cookies, or any baked goods for that matter, need to be eaten within 24-48 hours of baking. I think that began because these cookies just taste better within that time period. If they didn't get eaten within the first 24 hours, it was unlikely my family was going to eat the rest. But, I'm sure part of that was due to the fact that I always doubled the recipe below, leaving the 6 of us to eat 4 dozen cookies before my self-imposed expiration limit.

Plus, I have no willpower. I can't fathom how people can keep perfectly good cookies sitting in their kitchen for days or weeks at a time, and not eat them all. Often I justify polishing off a batch of goodies as a public service, so that they won't be there to tempt others later on. This placates my conscience, until my husband asks where all the cookies are because he's home with the kids and they want a treat. -sigh- Really, the ability to leave freshly baked homemade cookies alone is, in my opinion, a superpower, up there with x-ray vision and flying.

The key to this recipe is butter flavored Crisco. I am a totally converted butter baker now, but back in the day, I only used butter flavored Crisco for baking. The Crisco is critical to getting the Cort's Classic taste. Also, feel free to add a little bit more flour, make the balls of dough thick and high, and slightly under-bake these babies so they turn out fat and chewy. These aren't over-sized cookies. If you let them cool on the baking sheet they will flatten more, like the ones in the picture. My 10-year-old baked these, on her own. And so the legend continues....

Cort's Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

(makes 20 nice sized cookies)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup butter flavored Crisco
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the sugars, egg, vanilla, and Crisco.
3. Add the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Form a log of dough. (see picture) Break off chunks, just under the size of a golf ball, and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.   
   
   
   
   
5. Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until the tops are just turning golden brown.
6. Let cool for 2-3 minutes on cookie sheet. Remove cookies from sheet and continue to cool on a cooling rack. 

These are best warm!

Make the dough. Share the cookies!