No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Because I am doing a self-imposed 50 dollar a week food budget for 2 months, I am having to think of how I cook a little differently.  For instance, I use butter regularly for my baking. I buy butter (usually 25 pounds of it) when it is deeply discounted during the holiday season and freeze it. Then I pull it out throughout the year and use it as I need it. (Unless I do a ton of kitchen gifts I rarely use it all.) When the holidays roll around again I assess my butter needs and purchase enough to equal the 25 pounds and start all over. While I am doing this challenge I am still able to grab butter from the freezer, but I have to assign the week's price of butter to it. I don't mind doing that, but I am not going to use it recklessly. Which brought me to yesterday's dilemma. I had decided to make chocolate chip cookies, (chocolate chips__another after holiday freezer stock up) but was not comfortable using all that butter just to indulge our sweet tooth.

A quick google search lead me here where I found a delicious recipe for an oil based cookie dough.

Different Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2½ cups flour
1 bag (about 1 -1 ½ cups) good quality chocolate chips (yeah, right__Aldi's are fine for cookies and I only used a half a bag.  You know, thrift and all!)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together oil and sugars until smooth and creamy.
Add the vanilla, baking soda, salt, eggs, and cornstarch, beating well to combine after each addition. Add flour and beat until just combined. Add chocolate chips and stir to combine.
Scoop the dough using a medium cookie scoop (or a heaping tablespoon) onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, until the tops are set. Do not over bake.

To be honest I cut this recipe in half for 2 reasons. We did not need the entire recipe of cookies and I did not have enough oil left to commit to one single recipe of anything.

These cookies were more than just a little tasty, they were really really good.  Around here we call a plate of leftover cookies bad cookies, and these definitely were not bad.  I think there might be 5 left.

I am going to make these again with no chocolate chips.  One of the cookies was made using the spatula to get the last tidbits of dough out of the bowl.  It contained no chocolate chips and it was delicious as just a sugar cookie. I have a feeling I will be playing around with this recipe for a while just to see what variations I can come up with.

So why are you reading this? Go bake cookies!