Our Favorite Upstate NY Foods {Vlog}

When I was home last week, my sister Emily and I decided we wanted to record a vlog about all our favorite upstate NY (well, mostly Endicott, NY) foods. The video turned out to be kind of a bust (and fifteen minutes long), so we edited together all the outtakes for a ridiculous and completely not informative blooper vlog and decided to post that instead. Enjoy 🙂

Here is a list of the places/foods we talked about (but didn’t necessarily make it into the video):

• Chicken Spiedies – If you haven’t experienced chicken spiedies yet, you are SURRRIOUSLY missing out. My personal favorite spiedie marinade is Salamida’s.
• Turkey joints – A totally weird and totally delicious chocolate/Brazil nut confection from Rome, NY.
• Jim Roma’s – Best white pizza in Endicott!
• Rossi’s – Chicken wing pizza. Uhhhh huh.
• Cider Mill – DOUGH.NUTS.

Momofuku’s Birthday Cake Crumbs

Listen. This post has nothing to do with Christmas. But I’ve been freeeeeaking out over these birthday cake crumbs for the past three weeks and decided it’s high time I SHARE.

I discovered the crumbs while searching for a birthday recipe for a good friend who is a big fan of Momofuku’s Milk Bar. [I briefly posted about Milk Bar last year around this time – hellO red velvet soft serve!]

Words cannot describe, so I’ve compiled a list of reasons+pictures you should whip them up as. soon. as. humanly. possible.:

1. Crumbs, in their eensy-weensy size, do not have calories. No one was ever like, “Oh man, my pants feel extra tight. It must be all those crumbs I’ve been eating.”

2. Therefore, birthday cake crumbs = zero calories. Guilt-free.

3. They are so super duper easy to make!

4. Rainbow sprinkles!

5. So many!

6. Spoon – – mouth. Spoon – – mouth. Repeat.

7. You’re probably sick of Christmas cookies. Make crumbs instead.

8. Observe:

8a. Hypothetically, if you let your ice cream melt a little, mixed in some crumbs, and put it back in the freezer? Hypothetically, you might have BIRTHDAY CAKE CRUMB ICE CREAM. And hypothetically, your boyfriend might eat it all in .5 seconds. Hypothetically.

9. IT’S LIKE BIRTHDAY CAKE STREUSEL. I REPEAT, BIRTHDAY CAKE STREUSEL.

10. Do you really need a tenth reason at this point? WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE??? GO! MAKE THEM! NOW!

Meow. Woof. Ho ho ho.

Momofuku’s Birthday Cake Crumbs

Note: The original recipe from Momofuku is in grams, but since I don’t have a kitchen scale I used this recipe from Hummingbird on High with a couple minor changes.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup cake flour*
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles**
• 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

*I didn’t have any cake flour on hand so I used this trick and added 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch to a 3/4 cup measure and filled the rest with flour.

**The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of rainbow sprinkles, but I’m willing to bet you could pump up the jam all the way to 3 tablespoons if you’re really feeling the rainbow sprinkle cheer!

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with Silpat or parchment.
2. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt, and sprinkles. Mix on low until combined. Add the oil and vanilla and mix on low until the ingredients start to clump together in small clusters  – it should take about a minute for everything to combine.
3. Dump the crumbs onto the prepared baking sheet and spread out gently with your hands to form a single, even layer. Bake for 20 minutes, carefully stirring once, until the crumbs turn a very slight golden brown.
4. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack – the crumbs will harden as they cool. Store in a sealed container at room temperature.

 

 

Halloween Candy Cookie Bars

A couple of good things happened in the past few days:

1. I finally bought Halloween candy. Never mind the fact that I live in an apartment building made up of only grown ups, because – much like my Frankenstorm prep – you can never be too prepared. Never mind the fact that said Halloween candy will certainly not last us until the actual day of Halloween. Never MIND the fact that there are 750 Butterfinger wrappers in my garbage can. Do you even KNOW how I feel about Butterfingers???? I want to hug them with my whole face. CHOMP.

2. MIKE PASSED THE BAR!!! This is very, very good news. We celebrated by getting a fancy drink in a fancy bar and congratulating ourselves on being grown ups and then hit up The Lower Depths and ate 500 $1 hot dogs and drank beer. Grown ups < not grown ups.

3. Frankenstorm cancelled school today!!!! I think this is karma for all the snow days we DIDN’T have last school year. Thank you, Sandy. Even though you have the saddest hurricane name.

4. Mike and I became addicted to Homeland and it is, to date, the only TV show we agree on. It’s also the only thing we’ve done in the past 4 days. IT. IS. SO. GOOD. Thank you, Showtime, for saving my TV-watching relationship.

So, anywho…I bought all this Halloween candy and said to myself, “Self? How can you add 4,000,000 more calories to Halloween?” And myself said, “Chop up your Butterfingers and Snickers and Kit-Kats and put them in a cookie dough blanket.” So I did.

Perhaps my sub-conscious is preparing me for the impending doom of Sad-Sandy? Like a chipmunk collects nuts for the winter, I collect calories in the form of cookie-candy bars for power outages. It’s biology. Delicious, delicious, biology.

Halloween Candy Cookie Bars (basic blondie recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

yield: 16 squares

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup candy bars, chopped*

*I used my favorite Halloween candies: Butterfingers, Snickers, Kit-Kats and M&Ms, but feel free to add whichever candies are YOUR favorites!

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8×8 pan with cooking spray (for even easier removal, line the pan with parchment paper and then coat with cooking spray).
2. In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir with a rubber spatula until mostly combined. Fold in the chopped candy bars.
3. Spread the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the center is just set – it will seem pretty gooey but the bars will firm up as they cool. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Mini Almond Flour Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Dear Everyone in the World,

WHY HAVEN’T YOU TOLD ME ABOUT BAKING WITH ALMOND FLOUR BEFORE?????

Sorry for yelling.

Love,

MeI opened my fridge yesterday and spied the huge bag of almond flour I bought in Paris last spring (otherwise known as The Time I Went To Paris And The Only Souvenirs I Bought Were Food) that was {{GASP!}} about to expire!! Rather than let my beautiful Parisian memories go to waste, I decided to a little baking-with-almond-flour experiment.

Usually when I conduct a baking experiment in my kitchen, it goes 50-80% wrong and I send the failed baked goods with Mike into work and his fancy lawyer co-workers that I should try harder to impress work peeps eat them anyway and give me compliments and I feel super good about myself because even when I fail at baking I still make wicked delicious things. Right? Right.

So when I finally had a baking experiment success, I couldn’t help but feel a little mad at you, everyone in the world, for not telling me about almond flour sooner. I could have been baking 100% DELICIOUS things and sending them into Mike’s work and being impressive all along!! What the heck??? I forgive you.Baking with almond flour makes these muffins really really not dry (for lack of a better word) (AHEM…moist. MOIST! THESE MUFFINS ARE SO MOIST.) with very little added oil. Who knew???

And the flavor is out-of-this-WORLD. Try them! Try them!! I promise to never say moist again.

Mini Almond Flour Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

makes 36 mini muffins

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and brown sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the bananas and vanilla; beat until combined. With the mixer on low, slowly stream in the vegetable oil until fully incorporated.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana/sugar/egg mixture and beat on low until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill mini muffin tin 3/4 full; bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges of the muffins are brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.**
3. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Best served within 24 hours.

**Almond flour bakes differently that regular flour, so the muffins might look a bit over-baked but they will still be moist inside! Just watch them carefully once you hit the 12-minute mark.

Birthday Confetti Cookies

Let’s be honest here: I’ve never been one of those people who are like, “Ohhh, don’t make a big deal for my birthday. It’s just another day.”

Um, no. I’m more like one of those people who’s like, “Did you hear? What today is? MY BIRTHDAY. Uh huh uh huh yes HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.” The bigger the celebration, the better. I’ve basically been asking for a surprise birthday party for all 25 years of my life. So…someone figure that out in the next 364 days. I’ll try to forget that I asked for it.

In light of this birthday obsession, it’s really only fitting that I make my own birthday cookies stuffed with M&Ms and rainbow sprinkles, right?

Right.

Additionally, in honor of turning 25 today, I’ve decided to share:

25 Things You Probably Don’t Need to Should Know About Me.

1. I keep snacks with me at all times because if I don’t know when the next time I’ll have access to food is, I’ll have a mental breakdown. You don’t know! It could be days!!
2. I swear by LipSmacker’s Dr. Pepper chapstick. NOTHING compares.
3. My and Mike’s parents got married on the same date – year and all! It’s pretty much the only reason we’re still dating. (KIDDING, kidding. We like at least 2 things about each other).
4. I have kitchen OCD. Dirty pot in the sink? You better believe I’m losing sleep over it. (This does not bode well for our new dishwasher-less apartment).
5. I can’t sleep unless my room is freeeeeezing. Like, 60 degrees or less. Cold nose, cold cheeks, snuggled under a down comforter, pleaseandthanks.
6. I took dance classes until 6th grade, at which point I forgot my solo in the middle of the recital, realized I have about as much rhythm as an elephant, and said SEEYA!
7. If I had to pick one kind of food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be – without a doubt, forever and ever – PIZZA. Or maybe s’mores.
8. I named my younger brother, Peter. I told my parents (before he was born), “I’m going to have a little brother and you’re going to name him Peter!”
9. I might be psychic.
10. But really. Sometimes I just think about a song while my iPod is on shuffle and it comes on next.
11. 25 things is a lot of things so I’ll keep the next few short:
12. Rainbow sprinkles.
13. Paris.
14. Puppies.
15. My first blog post. (I cannot believe I’m showing you this. OH, the places you’ll go!)
16. Until the age of 8 10, I legitimately thought “pillow” was pronounced “pellow”. WHY DIDN’T ANYONE EVER CORRECT ME ON THIS????? For TEN YEARS????
17. I have a scar on my forehead from the time my brother threw a rock at me. Accidentally? On purpose? Unclear.
18. I’ve had pinkeye every year since I was a freshman in college. Until this year. When I became allergic to my contacts.
19. I love talking about #2 (not the item on this list, the bodily function. Obv.) and I select my friends based on who’s comfortable with this topic. Overshare don’t care!
20. I can (and do) convince myself I have pretty much any rare disease. Last month I had a painful bump on the back of my head and the ONLY possible explanation was an Amazonian spider had laid its eggs in there.  Am I getting TMI in these last few items???
21. I started out as an animal science major in college until they made me clean up cow poop and I said, SEEYA!
22. I am still 100% sure the girl from The Sixth Sense lives under my bed, so when I go to bed at night I leap in from at least 4 feet away so she can’t grab me.
23. One time in middle school I had a pet hermit crab for a week until it crawled out of its shell and died. DO NOT google “hermit crab without shell”.
24. I consider solo dance parties in my room to be a legitimate form of exercise.
25. My totally non-aggressive date to the 8th grade formal broke Mike’s arm in a hockey game, like, 6 years before we ever met. #starcrossedlovers

I hope you feel like you know me better. Fascinating life I’ve got goin’ on over here 😉

But let’s get back to these cookies! Made with browned butter and brown sugar and lots of vanilla, they’re not-too-sweet (just how I like ’em!) and chewy and crispy. Happy birthday to me, inDEED.

Birthday Confetti Cookies

yield: ~40 cookies, depending on size

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, browned and cooled
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups mini M&Ms
• 1/2 cup rainbow jimmies

Directions

1. In a large pan, melt the butter on medium-high until it starts to brown (it’ll bubble and become darker in color, but be careful not to let it burn!) Allow to cool for 30 minutes.
2. When the butter has cooled, pour it into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and add the sugars. Beat on high until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and add the egg and vanilla; beat until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture and stir until almost combined. Add the M&Ms and sprinkles and mix on low until fully combined. Roll the dough into 2-inch balls (or smaller, if you’d like) and bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are just golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

Colorado Snapshots {Part 1}

You know I couldn’t resist! Now that I’m settled in vacationland stop #2 {the Jersey shore} and have gone through my Colorado photos 12353228 times, I’m so excited to share them with you! Today’s pictures come from our first couple days in Denver, which, surprisingly enough, were all about food.

{Mike posing with his own personal food truck}

{Award-winning Pinche tacos}

{Fine cuisine on a stick. Sign. Me. Up.}

{French fry-stuffed gyro uhhh HUH}

{Me & Fina}

{Cupcake truck}

{Bacon chocolate cupcake}

{Rotunda inside the state capital building}

{Blood orange soda, new favesie fave}

{Giant peeping bear}

{Flight of beers at Denver Beer Co.}

{Maple bacon, PB&J, glazed, chocolate crueller, s’mores, chocolate caramel pecan. Best. Donuts. Of. My. Life.}

Stay tuned for some s-e-r-i-o-u-s scenery in {Part 2}!

S’mores French Toast @ Sugar Mags (and other amazing things)

This is the story of how two bloggers lost their minds over a little breakfast concoction known as s’mores french toast at Sugar Magnolias in Gloucester, MA.

Lost. Their. Minds.

Anna and I decided to head to Sugar Mags after hearing multiple recommendations about their brunch menu. We knew that we couldn’t survive even one more weekend without trying “Georgia’s French Toast” or carrot cake pancakes and high-tailed it up to Gloucester just as fast as Anna’s Pandora-90s-jams-fueled car would take us.

We spent thirty minutes waiting for a table (me on the edge of a nervous breakdown, Anna taking slanted reflection selfies) before finally sitting down and ordering our brunch dream come true. And let me tell you, when our waitress arrived with two plates containing the most delicious-looking breakfast treats on the face of this earth the only thought running through my mind was

NUH. UH.

Since s’mores are my favorite dessert ever and french toast is my #1 go-to brunch item, I basically felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. I hit the brunch lotto! I’ve got a golden tiiiicket! 

Oozing marshmallow fluff. Melty chocolate chips. Crumbly graham cracker bits. Thick, fluffy bread.

Cinnamon carrot cake pancakes the size of the moon. Maple-infused cream cheese BUTTAH.

Toasty cornbread GRILLED IN BUTTAH.

CRISPY BACON.

LOSING MY MIND. MY MIND IS LOST.

Now I’m going to let the photos do the rest of the yelling talking.

Behold…

Homemade Ricotta Pizza

I hope this blows everyone else’s mind as much as it blew mine:

You can make your own ricotta cheese. And it’s really, really ridiculously easy.

Four ingredients. 30 minutes. Warm, creamy, freshly made ricotta ready to be put onto a spoon and into your belly. UUUUUHHHHH HUUUUUUHHH.

If you’re anything like me, this is a real game-changer. Ricotta is the boooomb and knowing that it can easily be made at home is the best news I’ve gotten all week (thanks Katy!). I used this homemade ricotta recipe from the Barefoot Contessa (I didn’t have white wine vinegar so I subbed regular distilled white vinegar).

Though I could have very easily eaten the entire batch of ricotta straight out of the bowl, I decided to make some homemade pizza with it instead, totes gourmet. Though this isn’t technically a recipe, I topped my dough with the ricotta and a little bit of fresh mozzarella and basil and baked it at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Then I threw on some fresh arugula and cherry tomatoes and a drizzle of balsamic glaze. I love fresh tomatoes on my pizza so much more because they don’t get all mushy in the oven and personally I think they taste better, but you could easily bake the tomatoes into the dough with the ricotta.

This is what’s up. Make your own ricotta cheese, AND DO IT NOOOOOOOWWWWW.

PS: Since this is 100% homemade it’s also 100% healthy. #lawsIwouldmakeifIwasincharge

Peanut Butter Cup S’mores Bars

WARNING: This post is going to be 97% rant and 3% delicious baked goods.  It’s my blog and I can rant when I want to.

It’s kind of a rite of passage into adulthood that at some point in your grown-up years, you have a really terrible landlord.  But I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again…my landlord is pretty much the WORST.

Exhibit A: The other day my roommates and I got locked inside our apartment (HELLO fire hazard) because our doorknob fell off.  Just a casual turn of the handle and *pop!*…bye bye doorknob, bye bye ability to open door.  So we’re locked in our apartment imagining all the ways we’re going to die and trying not to use up all the oxygen as the walls slowly close in on us and we think, who can help us get out of this pickle?

Our landlord, right?

Wrong.  Though she lives one floor below us, we are NOT allowed to call the landlord.  For any problems, whatsoever, periodendofstory.  It’s even part of our lease agreement!  Locked in your apartment?  Tough.  Hot water stops working?  Too bad.  Raccoon burrowed in your bedroom wall?  Deal with it.

Luckily we have a back door and were able to escape, praise Jesus.

Exhibit B: I recently received an IRATE phone call from Landlady Extraordinaire because we’ve apparently been shortchanging her on rent each month.  Which would typically be a big deal, but…

Try to guess how much we’ve been shortchanging her by.  Seriously, guess!  Bet you can’t.

ONE.  PENNY.

A penny!  One cent!  1/100th of one dollar!

I get it.  Times are tough.  But lady?  Even if we shortchanged you every month for 2 years, you wouldn’t even be missing a QUARTER.

So obviously we stuck an envelope of pennies underneath her door with this month’s rent.  We really know how to do the mature thing.

Exhibit C: She threatened to call the police last month because she heard the guys who live across the hall swearing.  Seriously!  Can’t make this stuff up.  I live in an orphanage.

Luckily I have the coolest apartment with the best natural kitchen light in all of Brookline, which totally makes up for my mean old landlady.  But you better believe I am NOT sharing my baked goodies with Cruella de Vil anytime soon.

None of that had to do with peanut butter cup s’mores.  But these bars?  They combine my two ALL-TIME-FAVORITE baked goods and are the new *!*!*Best thing I’ve ever made!!*!*!  I’m never eating a s’more sans peanut butter cup or peanut butter cup sans s’more ever again.  Cross my heart hope to die.  Peanut butter cup s’mores are life.

Peanut Butter Cup S’mores Bars (adapted from Pinch of Yum and Sprinkle Some Sunshine)

yield: 16 large/20 small squares

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 16 peanut butter cups, regular size
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff*

*Fluff is pretty impossible to measure, so this doesn’t have to be an exact amount, just kind of eyeball it. As long as you have enough to cover the PB cups, you’re good to go.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8×8 baking dishing with parchment paper; coat lightly with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl of the bowl of stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.  Scrape down the sides.  With the mixer on low, stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, and graham cracker crumbs until mixed.
3. Spread 2/3 of the dough on the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Lightly press the peanut butter cups into the dough, then spread marshmallow fluff on top.  Press the remaining dough on a non-stick surface into the shape of an 8×8 square.  Place the square on top of the fluff and press down lightly.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown.  Allow to cool for at least two hours* to give the bars a chance to set, then remove from the pan and cut into squares with a large, sharp knife.

*Originally I said the bars needed to cool for 8 hours, but after making them again I’ve realized they’re ready to go after only about 2. I also bet they are DAAANG good straight from the oven 😉

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was in preschool, we made Valentines for our parents that said “I love my parents because ________.”  I’m sure the other little kiddos said things like “…because they love me” or “…because they give me great hugs”.

I said, “I love my parents because they let me eat white bread.”

Seriously!  True story.  Real life.  I love my parents because they let me eat white bread.

If that isn’t a MAJOR RED FLAG for a future foodaholic, I don’t know what is.

Even at the ripe age of four years old, I knew what was up.  Sliced white bread, that’s what.  For the next 20 years, it was a serious struggle to get me to eat whole wheat anything.  Now that I’m older, wiser, and watched enough “This is Why You’re Fat” documentaries to last me a lifetime, I know that white flour = bad and whole wheat flour = good.  But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop eating white flour anytime soon.

However, thankfully, miraculously, Trader Joe’s has started selling white whole wheat flour!  I’m not entirely sure of the nutritional specifics, but it’s basically the best thing that’s ever happened to me.  Whole wheat flour that looks and tastes white??  All over it.

So I’ve fancied up my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe with healthy whole wheat flour and BROWN BUTTER.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’ve never browned butter before, STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING, drop everything, and go do it RIGHTNOWTHISMINUTE.

I can’t even talk to you about how many spooncupfuls of this cookie dough I ate.  But if we’re being honest with each other…at least 15.  Oh, and I’ve gone on Facebook 3 times since Lent started.  I hope this doesn’t hurt my chances of getting into heaven.

As a former whole-wheat-hater, you know that if I’m saying whole wheat cookies are good, they’ve gotta be really good. And these are better than good.  The whole wheat flour gives them more depth of flavor and a crumblier texture, and the brown butter gives them a nuttiness that is IMpossible to resist.   Dare ya.

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

yield: about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, browned
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour*
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

*If you can’t find white whole wheat, sub 1 cup whole wheat flour + 3/4 cup white all-purpose flour.

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Allow it to bubble, swirly constantly, until it starts to brown.  Remove from heat and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.
2. In a large bowl of the bowl of a stand mixer, beat brown sugar, sugar, browned butter, and shortening until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; blend well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture slowly to the butter mixture; beat on low until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on a wire rack.