Yick, no Crisco! Your chewyness comes from *psst! Don't tell!* corn syrup.
Okay, this one is from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, and is called The Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie. Here's what it says:
"Golden brown, craggy from a surfeit of chips, these moist cookies bend, then reluctantly break to reveal a lava flow of melted chocolate. Truly--- if you're a chewy chocolate chip cookie lover, it just doesn't get any better than this. The surprise ingredient? Vinegar. The small amount of vinegar accomplishes two things: it tempers the sweetness of the sugar a bit, allowing the flavors of the chocolate and butter to shine through, and it reacts with the sodium bicarbonate in the leavener, giving the cookies a little extra lift in the oven. Try it, you'll like it.
"Yield: 4 dozen cookies~ Baking temperature: 375F.~ Baking time: 10 minutes
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, or 6 oz) unsalted butter
2/3 cup (5 1/4 oz) dark brown sugar
2/3 cup (4 3/4 oz) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (1 1/4 oz) light corn syrup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or white vinegar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups (9 1/2 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
3 cups (18 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
~Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
~In a medium sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, corn syrup and vinegar, then beat in the eggs. Beat in the vanilla, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips.
~Drop dough by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, until they're just set; the centers may still look a bit underdone. Remove them from the oven, and transfer up to a rack to cool."
There's no reason why you can't add walnuts. You could either do just two cups chips (which is what comes in a bag) and do a cup of walnuts, or you can add however many you want to this recipe.
And a secret about really yummeh nuts in cookies? Toast them gently in a skillet first. I like to put in a quarter stick of butter, and then saute with salt over low heat until they're toasted and crunchy. I sometimes get rid of the chocolate, and use a whole bunch of pre-toasted pecans, and substitute some of the white sugar for more brown, and voila! Butter Pecan Cookies to absolutely die for!
I hope you like!
