Quad Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now that the heat of Summer is leaving the Pacific Northwest, I am firing up my oven a lot.  And what better reason to fire up the oven than to bake some delicious cookies and try out more of my THRIVE :)?

...And maybe to include dessert for the meal I was taking to a family at church with a brand new baby!  (Bonus is I got to hold the baby...  Was my munchkin ever that small!?!)

So since receiving THRIVE Shortening Powder in my host benefits order, I noticed the recipe on the #10 can looked particularly appealing to one such as myself:  Quad Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Quad = 4.  Four chocolate.  I'm pretty sure I was sold already.  I knew I had to try it out.  And making dessert for a lovely family was a great reason to do so.  Plus I had all the types of chocolate chips in my cupboard...  I thought I was stocking up for Christmas baking back when all these were on sale...  Turns out I needed them sooner :).

Oh. My. Goodness.  These cookies are divine.  Chocolatey, yes.  But so moist and chewy.  Even now, 8 hours later...

It's possible I've had more than I should have...  But I'm not really sorry :).

Yeah, get to the recipe already, right?!?  Here goes:

QUAD CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup THRIVE Shortening Powder, prepared (2 tablespoons water added)
2/3 cup brown sugar*
2 eggs*
1 teaspoon vanilla*
2 1/4 cup white flour*
1 teaspoon salt*
1 teaspoon baking soda*
1 to 2 tablespoons milk*

Carefully melt 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips.  Combine sugar and prepared shortening (I just threw the shortening, sugar, and water in the mixer and mixed -- worked great) and mix together for 5 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla, blend well.  Add melted chocolate and mix again.  Sift in flour, salt, and baking soda; blend well.  Add milk a little at a time if dough seems to thick (I added 2 tablespoons).  Fold in remaining chocolate chips (I didn't measure, and I'm pretty sure I used less than was called for and it was still plenty) and blend for 5 minutes.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.  Bake at 350 for 8 to 12 minutes.  Makes two dozen cookies.

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE.

So, a couple extra notes:  The dough was pretty stiff when I took it out of the fridge.  I was worried.  My first batch didn't flatten much, but they were still delicious and soft and yum.  I chose to flatten the remaining batches slightly with my hand, just to get a bit flatter of a cookie.  I baked for 8 minutes (my oven bakes hot).  And I got about 40 cookies and I think they were decent size, so I'm not sure how huge the cookies would be if you only get 2 dozen!  (But I'm totally happy with 40 as opposed to 24 :)).

Seriously, you want to make these cookies.  And then eat them all.