Chocolate-Chocolate Chippers

Double chocolate means double the chocolate delivery. Half the semisweet morsels get melted and beaten into the dough, creating a deeply chocolatey base. The other half stays whole and gets folded in at the end along with chopped walnuts, giving you melty chocolate pockets and nutty crunch in every bite.

Creaming the shortening with sugar until light and fluffy is the step that determines the texture of these cookies. Shortening (not butter) keeps them soft and chewy rather than crispy and spread-out. Butter-based cookies flatten more in the oven because butter has a lower melting point. Shortening holds its shape, which means thicker, puffier cookies.

The melted chocolate needs to cool before it goes into the creamed mixture. Hot chocolate will melt the shortening and turn the dough greasy and flat. Room temperature or just slightly warm is what you want.

A splash of milk in the dough keeps things soft and prevents the cookies from being crumbly. Ten minutes at 350F is a short bake. Pull them when they look just barely set on top. They’ll firm up on the wire rack as they cool.

Kitchen Tips

• Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat, not direct heat. Chocolate scorches fast and can’t be saved once it seizes.
• Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls for uniform cookies that bake at the same rate.
• Grease the cookie sheets lightly. Too much grease and the bottoms brown before the centers set.
• Transfer to wire racks carefully. These cookies are fragile when warm and firm up as they cool.

Variations

• Use pecans or toasted hazelnuts instead of walnuts for a different nut flavor.
• Add a teaspoon of instant espresso powder to the melted chocolate for a mocha-flavored cookie.
• Swap half the semisweet morsels for white chocolate chips for a black-and-white cookie.