There is nothing quite like a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie. Something about their simplicity makes them a staple in our comfort food lineup.
I took a basket of cookies to a work potluck a year or so ago and people kept asking me, “How do you make your cookies not go flat?” The answer is, shortening. That’s right, hydrogenated vegetable oil. Crisco brand butter flavored to be exact.
But that isn’t my full secret, the real secret requires a little understanding of the difference between butter and shortening.
Butter, Salted Butter, and Tasty Lipids
Butter is a thick paste-like fat made from milk solids. It has a lower melting temperature and smoke point and when melted is considerably thinner than vegetable shortening. It has a distinct flavor that works well in most cooking and baked goods.
The melting point of butter actually varies by brand, dairy, and time of year. It typically falls between 85-95°F. This is because the moisture content of butter changes depending on temperature, churn time, and the diet of the cows.
One thing that definitely changes the melting point of butter is salt. Salt, or Sodium Chloride, makes a chemical bond with water that is very difficult to break. When it is added to butter it actually increases the moisture content of the butter slightly. Which will put the melting point closer to the bottom end of the scale.
Butter also integrates better than shortening. When added to flour and heated it will become a thinner liquid, which means it will fully integrate into the flour earlier. This is good if you want to make something that is uniform in texture like cake, but bad if you want something that has a complex texture like pie crust.
Hey, Who You Calling Short?
Shortening, or what most people think of when you say shortening, is a compound made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that has been processed to have a crystallized structure similar to lard. Lard technically is a type of shortening, but for our purposes we will be referring specifically to vegetable shortening.
Key differences between butter and shortening are that it is 100% fat as opposed to butter which is up to 16% water. It has a higher smoke point, which means it is a little more difficult to burn. After reaching its melting point shortening becomes a thicker vegetable oil that does not integrate as quickly into flour as butter does.
Get to the Cookies Already!
When you use Shortening in cookie dough, two major differences can be observed. The first is that the cookies will be taller, and won’t flatten out. The second is that the dough will not stick to the chocolate chips. This is because as the cookies reach baking temperature, the oil lubricates rather than binds to the chocolate, and the thicker oil doesn’t disperse as much so the cookies don’t spread out as far, or flatten.
When you use Butter, the cookies thin out considerably more, the butter integrates thoroughly into the flour, and the cookie binds to the chocolate chips. This makes a flatter cookie with bumps where the chocolate chips are found.
Now, I’m not here to tell you that pure butter cookies are bad. They are downright delicious. Let me instead suggest, that maybe, just maybe, we can have the best of both worlds. By whipping butter and shortening together in equal parts, you can make a cookie that has the best properties of both. It doesn’t thin out, it sticks to the chocolate chips, and it stays soft.
Below you can see a comparison of the three.
Better Cookies
Note: The order you combine ingredients matters when making cookies, please read the full recipe before you begin.
- 1/2 Cup (one stick) Unsalted Butter
- 1/2 Cup Butter Flavor Vegetable Shortening
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 3/4 Cup Golden Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 Cups (12oz bag) Chocolate Chips
- 2 1/3 Cup Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer whip the butter and shortening together.
When fully creamed together add the sugar and mix until combined.
Add eggs and vanilla and beat until eggs have fully integrated into the mixture.
Add Chocolate chips to the sugar egg mixture and mix slightly.
IN A SEPARATE BOWL : Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together.
While mixing add the flour mixture slowly to the rest of the ingredients. Continue mixing until dough is uniform in color and texture.
Scoop in uniform size balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I recommend using a 1 1/4 tablespoon size ball for small cookies and a 2 1/2 tablespoon ball for larger cookies.
Bake at 380 degrees for 10-14 minutes, or until either the edges begin to show golden brown. or the top of the cookie loses its glossy sheen.
Let cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving to a cooling rack or separate parchment paper to finish cooling. The cookies will deflate slightly during this time. I use a big sheet of freezer paper waxed side down to transfer my cookies off of the cookie sheet. It is also okay to let them cool completely on the cookie sheet if you have enough cookie sheets and space.
