Lard Chocolate Chip Cookies

These lard chocolate chip cookies are both soft and chewy! Lard is an underrated baking ingredient for making cookies with. Despite the reputation surrounding lard, it is still used in a lot of recipes because it is the best for making a lot of baked goods. For example, biscuits are the biggest way in which this is true.

The chocolate chip cookies are made with lard, which is not an ingredient people would normally suspect. I find that these cookies are soft and chewy, and store very well. Even a couple days after, they were still very soft and chewy despite being somewhat-thin cookies. With other, more conventional recipes I’ve tried, the cookies can become hard and almost inedible after storing for a couple days. So needless to say, I’m quite pleased with my creation and I plan on doing it again!

Homemade Beats Store-Bought Any Day!

Homemade cookies are the best. How can we expect cookies that have been sitting around on shelves for weeks, pumped full of preservatives to compete with fresh, pleasant-smelling cookies recently pulled out of the oven? You can’t.

 

Let’s Talk Ingredients!

 

• Wheat Flour

You can use any wheat flour for this recipe at a 1:1 ratio. The wheat I use is einkorn, and ancient grain the ancient Romans consumed.

• Maple Syrup

Maple syrup adds richness to the cookie. I recommend using the darkest maple syrup you can find, at the highest purity grade possible. Maple syrup is definitely an underused ingredient in baking recipes.

• Vanilla Extract and Almond Extract

Vanilla extract and almond extract are synchronistic ingredients. The almond extract brings out the flavors of the vanilla. In a similar manner, vanilla and chocolate are a great example of synchronistic ingredients.

Almond extract is very strong, so be careful when adding it to your batter. As a general rule, almond extract should be 1/4 the amount of vanilla extract put in a recipe. You can apply this rule to practically any baking recipe.

Troubleshooting Cookie Issues

Why are my cookies flat?

• You accidently used too much flour. 

Most bakers have done this at some point. Fill the flour to the top of the measuring cup, then scrape off the rest. It’s a very easy mistake to make.

• Your baking powder was expired.

I’ve done this before. When I first started to really get into baking, I hadn’t baked much in years and I never realized I had to replace my baking powder after a certain point. Whoops! You live and you learn.

• The oven was at the incorrect temperature. 

There are three ways for this to happen.

1. The preheating step got skipped.
2. The wrong temperature was set on the oven.
3. Your oven is having technical difficulties and doesn’t reach the temperature it says it does (more common than you’d think). Check with an oven thermometer to make sure everything is functioning optimally.

Why are my cookies spreading too thin?

• Your dough was put on a warm baking sheet.

My oven is small, so I make multiple batches for this recipe. I rinse the cookie sheet under cold water until lukewarm, then dry it off. Chilling the dough helps it to retain it’s integrity and leads to better cookies.

• You prematurely mixed the sugar with the hot butter/duck fat.

I’ve done this before. I’ve made practically ever baking mistake in the book before. Dissolving the sugar in the hot liquid will degrade your cookie’s shape and texture.

• The chilling step was skipped.

I’ve miscalculated the amount of time I need the dough to chill and I’ve even arrogantly skipped this step before. DO NOT DO THIS! I have, and I regret the time I wasted on sub-par cookies.

• You accidently didn’t put in enough flour.