Looking to switch up your classic chocolate chip cookie recipe this fall? I have just what you need.

Over the years, I have made hundreds  (maybe thousands) of batches of cookies, and I have substituted all sorts of different flavors of chips and extracts.

With the holidays approaching, there will be a lot of variety in baking chip flavors available at your local retailers. Some of my favorites include mlik chocolate, candy cane, pumpkin spice, butterscotch, and peanut butter. If you are an online shopper, The Bulk Priced Food Shop on Amazon has a lot of great baking chip flavors.

If you like a little more texture in your cookies, substitute one cup of the chips with dried diced fruit, or crushed freeze dried fruit, or diced candied fruit. Candied lemon peels are excellent in cookies with lemon extract, and white chocolate chips. Dried cherries go great with dark chocolate chips/chunks.

Change up the flavor with different extracts. I like cake batter, lemon, or almond in place of vanilla. Watkins is my favorite brand- they have a wide variety of flavor extracts. Rembmer Essential oils and baking extracts are NOT THE SAME THING.

If you are vegan or gluten-free, there will be substitutions at the end of this post just for you.

Choose Your Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup room-temperature butter (not melted, not hot)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups, all purpose, baking flour
• 2 cups of chips, your choice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).
3. Add sugars one at a time and mix until fluffy.
4. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated fully.
5. Mix in baking  soda, salt, and flour.
6. Once all ingredients are blended into the dough, add chips.
7. I like to refrigerate my dough for about 30 minutes, this gives the flour a chance to rehydrate, and for the flavors to meld before the cookies are baked. It really in my opinion it makes the cookie texture a little bit better.
8. Drop tablespoon-sized dough balls on cookie sheets that have been greased or are lined with parchment paper. I prefer parchment paper.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes.  Let cookies rest 1-2 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack.

Variations: substitute half a cup of the room temperature butter for nut or seed butter of your choice. This will give your cookies a subtle nut flavor.

If you are vegan, substitute butter with your favorite plant-based butter, or hydrogenated shortening. Butter flavor shortening works best.

Additionally, you can substitute the two eggs for two flax eggs or egg replacer of your choice. It does affect the texture of the cookie, but if you are vegan or egg free, you’re probably used to the texture.