Crisp Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies Made Easy

Cookie dough is refrigerated and then cut into little squares before baking.

I wanted to take some Crisp Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies to Thanksgiving at my brother's in Albuquerque, but I did not have the time to scoop the dough out one half teaspoon at a time. Then I recalled what I do with my Crisp Mini Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles and Crisp Mini Sugar Cookie & Dove Chocolate Sandwiches: refrigerate the dough in a brownie pan and then cut with a knife to portion the dough. What I ended up with were randomly sized and shaped little chocolate chip cookies that taste fabulous. Even though they're not all sized the same, they baked up fine and all taste so good; I've nearly made myself sick on them. I will be making my Crisp Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies using this method from now on. Plus, I think I'll be trying it with some of my other cookie recipes now too.

Crisp Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies Made Easy
     --adapted from Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur 


Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup Crisco
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar 
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 2 ½ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 bag Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, unwrapped & cut into ¼-inch chunks
• 1 ½ cups chopped lightly toasted pecans (optional)

Instructions:
Line two square brownie pans (8x8 or 9x9) with parchment paper or wax paper. Set aside while you prepare the dough.Cream butter, Crisco, egg, & vanilla in a medium size bowl. (This will take a little while for the wet ingredients to emulsify.)
In a large bowl, stir together with a whisk the sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour.
Combine moist mixture with dry mixture just until it comes together (do not over mix).  Dough will be crumbly.  Add the chocolate chunks and pecans. Divide dough evenly between the two pans, press firmly into pans, fold over excess paper  cover with foil, and refrigerate dough two hours or over night.

Preheat oven to 370°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Remove one dough square from the refrigerator, and lift dough square out with the edges of the paper. Using a large, sharp kitchen knife, cut dough into about half-inch squares. Some will be crumbly; just squish what falls away into a dough chunk. Place dough squares about 1 1/2 inches apart onto parchment lined pans. (I eventually fit them 7 by 7 on my Airbake pans).Bake 8-11 minutes, or until puffed and light brown around the edges.
Makes a lot of mini cookies. 

You can see how the pan of dough above
baked into the cookies you see below.