Ahoy, there...want a cookie?

There’s nothing better than a good chocolate chip cookie. For me, it is the best comfort food. My friend Susan likes them so much that I made a cake for her one birthday by painting several dozen of them with chocolate frosting and piling them into a small free-form castle.
Homemade chocolate chip cookies are usually thin and crispy or thicker and chewy. The commercial brands are usually a little thicker and sandier. Though I generally don’t dare for factory-produced foods, I do like the sandier cookies.
So, I set about making the soft, sandy sort at home. I played with a number of recipes until I got the texture that I like. The kids seem to like the dough as well as the cookies and one daughter said she likes the dough as well or better than the chocolate itself – which says a lot coming from one of my offspring.
For vegans, carob chips work just as well as chocolate in this recipe…one can hardly taste the difference because the dough itself is the star of this cookie.
Because these cookies resemble a certain commercial brand in their texture and because we love to be on the water in our little sailboat, I have named these “Ahoy There” Cookies – they are a great way to start a friendship out on the water or at home.

Ahoy There Cookies

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
Dash ground nutmeg
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg white
2 to 4 tablespoons warm water
12 ounces chocolate chips
· Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Heat oven to 325 degrees .
· Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
· Use an electric mixer to mix the sugars and the shortening. When they are creamy. add the vanilla, salt, nutmeg and egg white.
· Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, adding a tablespoon of warm water (up to four tablespoons) to mix the flour. You will end up with a firm dough.
· Mix in the chocolate chips. As the dough gets thicker you may want to mix it by hand.
· Roll into 2-inch balls and squash them down with the palm of your hand.
· Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.