Bake yourself happy with these jumbo chocolate chip cookies! The recipe makes 1 ½ dozen delicious cookies! If you're gluten free, exchange the all-purpose flour for your favorite gluten free flour.

Ingredients:
2 cups of all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of salt
½ cup of butter or margarine at room temperature
¼ cup of vegetable shortening (I use Crisco)
1 cup of brown sugar
½ cup of white sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla
                                                               2 eggs
                                                               2 cups of chocolate chips
                                                               1 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
                                                               1 tablespoon of orange zest (optional)

​Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or foil.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together. Add the vanilla and eggs. Stir until completely mixed. Add the flour, baking soda and salt until blended. Add in the chocolate chips, and chopped nuts and orange zest if using.

Chill cookie dough in the fridge for a half hour.  Once the dough has chilled, use a large ice cream scoop to form the cookies. Place scoops of dough on your prepared cookie sheet, allowing 3 inches between them because the cookies spread as they bake. (If you don’t have a large ice cream scoop, use a ¼ cup of dough for each cookie.)
​
Bake cookies for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Let them cool on the pan. Enjoy!!!

I love baking cutout cookies for the holidays. I've tried different recipes and this is my favourite. The cookies keep their shape while baking. The key is chilling the dough. Get the kids in the kitchen and have some cookie fun!

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Chill dough: 2 hours or overnight
Bake time: 7 to 10 minutes per batch
Oven: 375 degree Fahrenheit
Cookies: approximately 36 cookies when using a 2 ½ inch cutter

Ingredients:
2/3 unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
2 cups of all-purpose flour

Directions:
With an electric mixer beat butter for 30 seconds (if you don’t have an electric mixer you can cream the butter and sugar by hand). Add the granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until combined. Add in the egg, milk and vanilla. Add almond extract, if using. Beat in the flour. Chill this cookie dough for a minimum of 2 hours, or overnight. This is important – don’t skip it! Chilled dough is easier to work with.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of your dough. I recommend working in small batches and keeping the dough you aren’t using chilled. Roll the dough to ¼ inch thick. Using 2 ½ inch cookie cutters, cut dough into shapes. Place the cutout cookies on a baking pan that’s lined with foil or parchment paper.
Place the pan with the cutout cookies in your refrigerator to chill while the oven preheats to 375 degrees. This helps the cookies retain their shape while baking.
Bake for 7-10 minutes or until the cookie edges have browned. Let the cookies cool then decorate and enjoy!
Baking Tips:
Chill the dough! Please don’t skip this step, especially in our humid weather. Chilled dough is easier to roll out and keeps its shape when baking.
If you don’t plan to decorate the cookies, sprinkle them with granulated sugar before baking.
Lining baking pans with foil or parchment paper cuts down on clean up time.
Oven temperatures vary. Check your cookies at the first suggested baking time of 7 minutes. If they aren’t ready, let them bake for an additional minute at a time.