State Fair Chocolate Chip Cookies
Earlier this week - maybe last week - when I heard that the MN State fair wouldn't happen this year, I was crushed along with thousands of other people. If you know me, you know I LOVE the MN State Fair more than almost anything else. In college, it was so easy to go because it was basically on campus, and since moving to Austin I have tried to make it back almost every year for it.
There are many wonderful things about the fair, the award-winning Christmas trees, the beer on a stick, Princess Kay of the Milky Way butter carvings, the dairy barn, the agricultural centers, baking contests, pronto pups, all you can drink milk for $2, and what most people who have been to the fair know, it's all about the bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies.
A plastic pail that overflows with 4 dozen freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. They hand you your bucket, you inevitably lose a few to the ground, eat enough that you don't lose any more cookies, and then head to the milk stand. It's a glorious moment. But we won't have that this year, so I did my best to recreate them at home.
I looked up the ingredients for Sweet Martha's cookies and after many attempts of trying to make an all-shortening cookie, I decided my home version needed to have butter to have the same consistency. The shortening version created a delicious cookie, but just a little doughier than Sweet Martha's.
MN State Fair Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
8 tbsp Unsalted Butter, room temp
½ cup Shortening
1 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Eggs
2 ¼ cup Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
12 oz (1 bag) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Instructions
In a stand mixer, whip together butter and shortening until creamy and it has lightened in color. Add sugars and continue to mix until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides as needed. When the mixture is smooth and lighter in color, add in vanilla and eggs. Mix until combined.
In a medium-sized bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and salt together.
Add dry mixture to wet mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips until well incorporated, making sure not to over mix. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour before baking.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your cookie sheets with parchment paper or cooking spray. Using a small cookie scoop, place small balls of cookie dough on your prepared sheet and push them down to flatten so they're about 1/3 inch thick, making sure to space them with at least an inch between the cookie dough patties.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden, allow cooling on the baking sheet before moving to an airtight container.
Happy Eating!
Kelly