The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
1-1/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tbsp. milk
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 egg
1-3/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. bakers ammonia
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Heat oven 375°F. Combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed of mixer until creamy. Beat egg into creamed mixture. Combine flour, salt and baking soda and mix into creamed mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and pecan pieces. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls (about 2 measuring tbsps.) of dough 3-inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375°F for 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheet 2 minutes. Remove to foil or waxed paper on counter top.

Comments from Don :

Bakers Ammonia is used primarily as a leavening agent in the baking of cookies. The Scandinavians and French are especially partial to it. It produces a much crisper but somewhat flatter cookie. When baking it gives off the strong pungent aroma of ammonia but the offensive odor quickly dissipates and is not noticeable in the finished product. Bakers Ammonia (ammonium carbonate) has been in use for centuries and was more commonly known as hartshorn. It was produced by grinding deer antlers but today it is chemically produced. Yes, there is a similar product in use today. It is Baking Soda (sodiumbicarbonate) which was introduced in the mid nineteenth century. The two products are directly interchangeable in cookie recipes but not in cakesor quick bread recipes. I use Bakers Ammonia because it contains no sodium. Baking soda has 1259 mg. of sodium per teaspoonful. If you are looking for a source for Bakers Ammonia, it may be obtained through the King Arthur Flour Co. Bakers Catalog. That's the only place I've been able to find it. I hope this answers your questions. If you want to know anything else, drop me a line.

User Reviews:

well i suppose this recipe is as good as it it's rating is. i served this recipe at my dinner party and the "baron"(he likes to pretend he's a baron, he's really my uncle) loved it!

Submitted by Anya on December 02, 2001

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