Chocolate Chip Cookies

The King Arthur Flour Company is based in Norwich VT.  It's only 15 minutes away from where my family will be this summer!  So while the boys are hiking some mountain I say the girls take a tour of their facilities and enjoy some baked goods and coffee from their cafe!  At the Hudsonville library I was able to check out their cookie cookbook which is about the size of a dictionary and really is an amazing resource.  I've made these cookies twice.  Once for the Sunday School kids and once for friends of ours who came for games.  They take two surprising ingredients: unsalted butter and vinegar.  After looking at more of the recipes in the cookbook all of them used unsalted butter which isn't what I'd normally use.  The other is vinegar which reacts with the baking powder to make the cookies fluffy.  These are awesome.  The recipe below is from their blog there's over 2,000 recipes!

Baking is tiring!

The amazing cookbook, surprising ingredients and the jumbo size cookies.

Ingredients
2/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, right from the fridge, or at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional
1 teaspoon vinegar, cider or white
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

1) In a large bowl, combine the sugars, butter, shortening, salt, vanilla and almond extracts, vinegar, and baking soda, beating until smooth and creamy.

2) Beat in the egg, again beating till smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is thoroughly combined.

3) Mix in the flour, then the chips.

4) Use a spoon (or a tablespoon cookie scoop) to scoop 1 1/4" balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2" between them on all sides; they'll spread.

5) Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes, till their edges are chestnut brown and their tops are light golden brown, almost blonde. Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pan till they've set enough to move without breaking. Repeat with the remaining dough.