Mennonite Monday - Neighborhood Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

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This is one of the best chocolate chip cookie recipes that you will find if you want soft cookies. This recipe is from the yellow church cookbook on page 27. I really like this recipe because it makes a really big batch, so the cookies last a little bit longer than the normal size batch, plus they are very soft cookies.

Neighborhood Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream together:
1 1/3 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar

Add:
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbl water

Stir well and add:
5 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix well and add:
2 cups chocolate ships (or more)
1 cup nuts

Drop by teaspoon. Bake in 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

Kelsey's Tip: Use butter flavored shortening. I'm not sure why, but it makes the cookies much better.

When you cream the first three ingredients together it looks like this.

Adding the next set of ingredients makes the consistency much smoother.

As you add the flour mixture it becomes much thicker.

I omit the nuts and only stir in the chocolate chips.

Kelsey's Tip: Refrigerate your dough overnight. This slows down the baking process making the cookies much softer. I don't really like crunchy cookies, but you can decide what you like better. If you bake them right away it will result in a fluffier dry cookie (not crunchy, just dry).

Also, this cookie dough is awesome if you eat it by the spoonful. Yes I know raw eggs are bad for you, but I haven't gotten sick from eating this dough yet and it tastes so good. I know you want to try it.

I always use my Pampered Chef medium cookie scoop and never use regular spoons. I just like how uniform they look when you use the scoop.

I made about 65 cookies from this batch, so you can feed a good group of people with these cookies. Or serve half right away and freeze the other half for a cookie emergency.