If it’s Tuesday then I’m bakin’ with my girl Dorie Greenspan :) Well… okay… I can’t really say “with” since she and I are not actually together… and I mean, she probably doesn’t even know I exist… but the recipe is hers and it’s from her book Baking From My Home To Yours (which, to be expected of any devotee, I *own*) and each week on Tuesday well… yanno the Tuesdays with Dorie group bakes one of her recipes ;-) So yup… it’s Tuesday and I’m bakin’ with my girl Dorie!!! And this week it’s her Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters. Wow – that’s a mouthful… AND a terrific cookie!

This week’s TwD host was Stefany of Proceed-With-Caution and she chose this wonderfully delicious cookie recipe that is packed full of goodies!

Notice at the bottom left of that picture there’s a dish filled with something ‘extra’… it’s my SECRET WEAPON. I figured the recipe called for chocolate chips… AND… peanut butter so why not use chopped up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups :)

But in the end, the cookies just didn’t “look right” without some chocolate chips so I added them after all. And after experiencing totally flat cookies from another of Dorie’s recipes, I was taking no chances and instead of using all butter as the only fat, I used half butter and half butter-flavor-Crisco (vegetable shortening). This is my go-to method for combatting FCS (flat cookie syndrome). You see, butter has a much lower melting point than shortening. When all-butter cookies go into the oven the butter melts before the flour, baking powder, etc have a chance to “set up”… and I get flat cookies. But… shortening has a much higher melting point so the dry ingredients have a chance to work their magic before the fat melts and lends a helping hand. For me, this produces a “taller” cookie. This is my experience, I’m not saying is 100% fool-proof, only saying what works for me. And I think it worked fine for me this time because, well, my cookie is not a flat one… and me no likey flat cookies! LOL :)


If you’re one who is repulsed by the mere though of using vegetable shortening, eh, that’s fine… don’t use it… but please resist the urge to flame me for my own personal choice because really, that’s all it is… my choice. To each their own. No one who’s ever eaten my cookies has recoiled in horror shrieking about the shortening. Really. It’s just an ingredient. It’s not a wonder drug. It won’t provide the winning Lotto numbers ahead of time and it won’t create world peace. But eating an occasional baked good with vegetable shortening ain’t gonna kill ya neither ;-) It’s all about moderation… and doing what feels right **for you**. So I’ll make you a deal… if you’re a shortening hater, do your best to resist the urge to flame me… and I’ll do my best to resist the urge to cut ya with my rapier wit ;-) Deal? Deal :)

Please visit the other TwD bakers and see how their cookies turned out. And if you’re interested in the recipe, please visit Stefany’s blog (or better yet, buy Dorie’s book!!!)

Have a delicious day :)