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Chocolate Cookies
1/2 cup shortening 1 cup sugar 1 egg, well beaten 1/2 cup milk 2 squares chocolate, melted 1 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup walnut meats Cream shortening and sugar thoroughly. Add egg, milk and chocolate, and mix well. Add flour and baking powder sifted together. Stir well and add vanilla and walnuts. Drop by spoonfuls on well greased baking sheet and bake, in hot oven, 400 degrees F., 10 to 12 minutes. Makes thirty.
A plain drop cookie from the era when chocolate came in wrapped baking squares and shortening meant lard or a hydrogenated tub fat. It needs almost no translation, but a few details are worth pinning down.
- Two squares chocolateBaking chocolate was sold in 1-ounce squares, so this is 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly. Do not substitute semisweet or the dough turns sweet and slack.
- ShorteningVegetable shortening gives the softer, cakier cookie the recipe intends. Butter works and tastes better, but the cookies spread more and brown faster, so check at 9 minutes.
- Oven400F is given outright, which is on the hot side for a drop cookie. An accurate oven thermometer matters here; 10 to 12 minutes leaves very little margin.
- ConsistencyWith a half cup of milk this is a soft, almost batter-like dough that drops from the spoon rather than being rolled. Resist adding flour to stiffen it.
- Walnut meats'meats' simply means shelled nuts. Measure the cup as shelled meats, then chop them coarsely.
- Greasing"Well greased" was necessary for bare steel sheets. Parchment does the job now and prevents the bottoms from overtaking the tops at this temperature.
- Doneness and yieldThe tops should look set and dull with the centers still soft; they firm as they cool. Thirty cookies from this quantity of dough means a generous spoonful each, well spaced on the sheet.
Drop cookies like this one belong to the age of chemical leavening and the standardized wrapped baking square, both of which put chocolate baking within reach of any home kitchen with a measuring cup.