Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was a little girl, standing on a kitchen chair to see up over the counter, the very first recipe my mother taught me to make was Chocolate Chip Cookies. In all the world, out of all the cookie flavors there could possibly be, there is no cookie more suited to the cookie jar for after-school snacking and no better cookie to represent the love of a mother in the kitchen, than Chocolate Chip Cookies. Thus, this recipe was the second recipe to be converted to high altitude in my house.
And so, here is both the original and high altitude versions of the classic soft and chewy, most wonderful Chocolate Chip Cookie:

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Chocolate Chip Cookies
The recipe at sea-level:

1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup butter-flavored Crisco
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon water
2 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (half a bag)

Preheat over to 375 degrees F.
Cream the butter, crisco, and sugars together. Add in vanilla, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth and creamy.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, and then add to the egg and sugar mixture. Mix well. Using your hand to mix now, add in an additional 1/4 cup flour, stiffening the batter. Add in the cocolate chips and continue to mix well with your hand.

Drop cookies by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, just until centers are set and tops begin to golden, and then remove from the oven. Allow cookies to remain on hot cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling rack. Cookies should be soft and chewy.

Cookies can be baked an extra 3-5 minutes if you prefer your cookies crisp and well-browned.

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Chocolate Chip Cookies at 5,000 feet:

1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon butter-flavored Crisco
3/4 cup minus 1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup minus 1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon water
2 extra-large eggs

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (half a bag)

Preheat over to 400 degrees F.
Cream the butter, crisco, and sugars together. Add in vanilla, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth and creamy.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, and then add to the egg and sugar mixture. Mix well. Using your hand to mix now, add in an additional 1/4 cup flour, stiffening the batter. Add in the cocolate chips and continue to mix well with your hand.

Drop cookies by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, just until centers are set and tops begin to golden, and then remove from the oven. Allow cookies to remain on hot cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling rack. Cookies should be soft and chewy.

Cookies can be baked an extra 3-5 minutes if you prefer your cookies crisp and well-browned.