Double chocolate takes on a new meaning in this back of the bag chocolate chip cookie recipe. Instead of being a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips, Pillsbury Double Chocolate Chip Cookies are brown sugar only chocolate chip cookies with both milk and semisweet chips. Like most back of the bag recipes this one's easy and convenient. I wasn't sure if I'd tried it before, so I made a batch and put the recipe here so I won't lose it again.
Pillsbury Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe calls for brown sugar only so the cookies are almost guaranteed to be soft and chewy. Even with the brown sugar, the cookies are still pretty light in color from the bleached flour and the ¼ cup of shortening. They're also very chewy and have a professional or bakery like texture close to the cookies everyone loves from Otis Spunkmeyer and Subway.
Substitute for the ¼ Cup Shortening
The ¼ cup of shortening gives them a great texture, but leaves a bit of an aftertaste. The good news is you can leave out the shortening and just use more butter. I made a second batch with all butter (¾ cup total) and heavy cream in place of milk. The cookies were darker in color and had a less bumpy texture, but a better flavor. I am really hoping that one day food scientists will create a fat that performs as well as shortening and actually tastes good.
Batch Size
Here's the back of the bag Double Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe if you're on the lookout for an easy recipe that makes normal size cookies. I'm mentioning that because so many of my recipes are jumbo size, like the Costco copycats and such. This recipe should give you 48 small cookies or 32 medium size.
Recipe
Pillsbury Back of the Bag Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar (250 grams)
- ½ cup unsalted or salted butter, softened (114 grams)
- ¼ cup shortening or 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (48 grams shortening or 56 butter)
- 2 tablespoons whole milk or cream
- 1 large egg, room temperature (50 grams)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, bleached (260 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Beat the brown sugar, butter, shortening, milk and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat just until it is fully blended.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and add to the bowl. Stir until blended, then stir in the chocolate chips.
- Using a tablespoon or a medium size cookie scoop, scoop dough onto parchment lined or ungreased baking sheets and bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool for about 2 minutes on baking sheet and carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Chilled Dough Ball Make Ahead Method
- On a plate lined with plastic wrap, foil or wax paper, drop medium size cookie scoops (or large tablespoons) of dough. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours but ideally a day or two. If storing longer, transfer the dough balls to the freezer.
- Arrange balls of dough on parchment lined baking sheets (or just use one sheet and bake as many balls of dough as you plan to eat).
- Bake on center rack for about 12 minutes or until cookies are brown around the edges.
- Let cool for 3 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool slightly before serving.
- For even better cookies, allow the cookies to cool completely, then store them in a zipper bag or a tin with a slice of bread. The next day they'll be even softer, but still dense and not cakey.
Anna says
Melanie, that's too bad! It's a back of the bag recipe, but not all back of the bag recipes work for everyone. If you are curious and want to try to figure out what went wrong, you could make the cookies again but be a little bit more precise measuring your ingredients. Weigh the flour or aerate it and spoon it lightly into the cups, REALLY pack the brown sugar or weigh it so that you get at least 250 grams -- you could even use up to 270 grams. Guessing you are not using a scale, but you shouldn't have to for a back of the bag recipe IMHO.
My feeling about this one is that your flour was dry and your 2 cups was more like 280 grams, so a heavy 2 cups, which you would have no way of knowing without a scale. And maybe your brown sugar was very soft and had a lot of moisture, so even if you packed it into the cup you were getting more water. Brown sugar can be very dry or very moist depending the brand how it's stored, weather. This recipe is all brown sugar so that leaves more room for error.
But these are slightly soft, so it's possible you might do better with a recipe that calls for a lot of sugar and less flour. Maybe give the Martha Stewart Fired Me Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe a try. There are lot of recipes out there! You'll find your perfect cookie.
Melanie says
This was the first time trying this recipe. I was not impressed by these cookies... I followed the recepie and ingredients completely.
turned out cakey and did not spread. Taste was bland as well.
Anna says
Hi Stephanie,
I've tried them all including both of the ones from Wal*Mart. The non-vegetable one does have the texture you describe, but I didn't care for the flavor and could taste it in cookies.
Stephanie says
I have read that Walmart shortening (the one that just says 'Shortening' and
not the one that says 'All Vegetable Shortening') has a better mouthfeel than say, Crisco. It has been compared to the high-ration shortening baker's use. It may be worth a test!
Anna says
I bought the bleached flour to make specific holiday cookies that call for it. More details to come!
Sue says
I appreciate that you tried an all butter version. I’m not 100% opposed to vegetable shortening. I appreciate what it does for cookie texture but like you said it really doesn’t do anything for the cookie’s flavor.
I also appreciate the “normal” size of these cookies. I love some of the bigger cookies but sometimes it is nice to have a cookie this size.
I don’t buy bleached flour very often but I know I’ve seen this recipe on the back of the bag. Thanks for trying it and writing about it.