How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies without a Mixer

Christian can tell you that you don't need a mixer to actually mix anything, specially a simple batch of cookies. Oh wait, Christian does tell me that every single time I turn on my Kitchen Aid. I do own a Kitchen Aid stand up mixer you know and I do love it very much. In fact my mixer is being babysat, or mixersat, or whatever, by a very good friend * I'm waving hi to Victoria*. 

Yesterday I made egg whites peak using nothing but my bare hands, a whisk, and a bowl. So did your grandmother back in the day, that is true. And before you turn away from this crazy chocolate chip cookie recipe that has peaked egg whites let me assure you that this recipe does in fact NOT have egg whites, at least not eggs wites separated from egg yolks. The egg whites were for chocolate pudding.

I know, I'm totally going off on a tangent but something about being the 5,476th person on the internet to post a chocolate chip cookie recipe makes me feel really relaxed. The chances of anyone in the universe putting "chocolate chip cookies" in a search engine and this post coming up are kind of like zero. Which is why I feel like I can tell you anything *waving hi to all my readers, my readers who knows about my love for tangents*

So here are some secrets/not so secrets you should know

// You don't need a stand up mixer or any electric gadget for that matter to mix cookie dough.

// You don't even need unsalted butter. It would be nice if you had unsalted butter, but you don't really need it.

// You don't even need chocolate chips. If you don't have access to chocolate chips (which of course you absolutely do have access to chocolate chips because 99% you guys live in a place where buying chocolate chip is as easy as buying toilet paper. I know because I check my google analytics) then just buy bars of chocolate and chop it up.

// There is toilet paper here in Itacare Bahia, no chocolate chips, no unsalted butter, but definitely toilet paper. Just in case you were wondering.

// If my dream comes true, or as Oprah told me I have to stop dreaming and start having true intent, well if my true intent comes true then one day we will live in a tiny home.

// If we live in a tiny home I will not be able to bring my Kitchen Aid, because Kitchen Aid mixers are not tiny. And here is where it's a good thing that you and I don't need a mixer to make cookies.

// Yes, I was an active participant of Oprah's Lifeclasses and if you have to pick just one I would say watch the You Become What You Believe episode while you eat chocolate chip cookies, they go well together. 

If for some crazy reason you don't already have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe than you are in fact a crazy person, or maybe you're just Brazilian. In that case you can head over here and see these exact same pictures but read totally different text AND get this recipe in Portuguese because, wait for it, I started a food blog in Portuguese. Blame it on Oprah and her ability to inspire like no one else. I tried to argue with her, "Oprah I am busy, I already have a blog and I have two kids, and I spend a really really long time every day launching in the beach" and she was like "yeah exactly." Truth be told I'm excited about my new blog, I feel like I owe it to my mom. My mom reads Kitchen Corners every single day even though English is really hard for her, so do a bunch of my Brazilian friends. So now once a week I get to write something in Portuguese which is actually really hard for me since most of my formal schooling was in English. It's good to do hard things. Making chocolate chip cookies, for example, without a mixer is a little hard but I totally know you can do it.

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies without a Mixer

Yields 3 dozen cookie

360g of semi-sweet chocolate (this can be chocolate chips or chocolate cut into small squares)

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature

1 cup white granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

1. Mix the flour with the baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. In a large bowl using a wooden spoon mix the butter, shortening, sugars, and vanilla extract for 2 minutes until the batter is creamy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time to the batter, mix well after each egg is added.
4. Fold the chocolate chips into the batter.
5. Let the dough chill for at least 3 hours in the fridge.
6. When the dough is firm pre-heat the oven to 375*
7. Use a spoon or a cookie dough scoop to scoop out the dough. Make little balls with the dough. Line up a cookie sheet with 9 dough balls, leaving space between each cookie.
8. Bake 10-12 minutes until the cookies are lightly golden brown around the edges.
9. Cool on a wire rack.