Shhh... I'm About to Give You a Secret Recipe...

...for the BEST chocolate chip cookies EVER.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent some time baking cookies for Vacation Bible School. Two days because I think there is unwritten rule at my house that if I'm making something to take somewhere, I must also make some for my husband. :-)

Anyway, as I was baking yesterday, it occurred to me that I could share this recipe and make our readers very happy. Ha!

This recipe kind of happened by accident...and now we just CANNOT go back to any other chocolate chip cookie. Several years ago, a friend gave me her recipe for No Bake Cookies (the best ever) and on the same page was a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. One day, I figured I'd give it a try...

After I had already started, I realized I was out of brown sugar. Uh-oh! So I searched the internet for a substitute. Apparently, everyone thinks you must have brown sugar to make chocolate chip cookies so the that didn't help. I began an experiment...changed the amount of granulated sugar, added some pudding mix, and after a few tries perfecting the recipe, here is what I came up with:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put your baking sheets in the oven as it preheats to warm them up (helps the cookies not spread out too much).

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. real butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar
1 (small) pkg. instant vanilla pudding
2 eggs
2 t. real vanilla

Beat above ingredients at high speed until light and fluffy.

Sift together 3 1/8 c. flour and 1 t. baking soda. Stir dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Stir in 12 oz. chocolate chips.

I make my cookies very large (about the size of golf balls) and bake them for 11 minutes.

Now these are not your typical "chewy" chocolate chip cookie. They are more of a melt in your mouth cookie.

If you are a fan of "chewy and soft," try this variation:

Instead of 1 c. granulated sugar, use 2/3 cup. Add 3/4 c. packed brown sugar. Be sure you still use the pudding mix...that helps them stay soft.

Now...if you find that you disagree about these being the BEST chocolate chip cookie EVER...well, we will just have to agree to disagree. Ha ha!

Enjoy!