Easy & Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are foolproof drop cookies, and the choice of shortening over butter is what gives them their character. Shortening has a higher melting point, so these chocolate chip cookies stay thick and tender and don’t spread into thin, greasy puddles the way some butter cookies do.

The base is creamed brown sugar, shortening, milk, and vanilla, which makes a soft dough loaded with chips. Best of all, you control the texture right at the oven: pull them around 8 to 10 minutes for soft and chewy, or leave them a few minutes longer for crisp.

Mix the dry ingredients in just until blended; overworking the flour is what makes cookies tough.

Pro Tips

• Stop mixing as soon as the flour disappears; overmixing develops gluten and toughens the cookies.
• Bake the shorter time for chewy cookies, the longer time for crisp, and adjust to taste.
• Pull chewy cookies while the centers still look slightly underdone; they finish on the hot sheet.

Variations

• Use butter in place of shortening for a richer, more spread-out cookie.
• Stir in chopped nuts or swap in chocolate chunks.
• Add a pinch of flaky salt on top before baking.