Triple Caress Chocolate Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter, vegetable shortening and semisweet chocolate in a small saucepan. Heat over low-medium until all ingredients are uniformly melted, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, stir again to smooth, and let cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, whip together at medium-high speed for 5 minutes the eggs, brown sugar, and white sugar. As eggs and sugar beat, make coffee concentrate by placing decaf in a small bowl and pouring boiling water over it, stirring to dissolve crystals. Stir in vanilla. After eggs and sugar have been beaten, add the decaf vanilla mixture, and the reserved melted chocolate mixture. Beat another 2 minutes. Combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and unsweetened cocoa. These ingredients need not be sifted, but they should be stirred or whisked together well. Remove chocolate mixture from mixer stand and stir flour cocoa mixture into it by hand. Lastly, stir in chips and optional nuts. Spray two double insulated style cookie sheets with cooking spray. To make ordinary sized cookies (about 3 inches in diameter), drop batter by rounded teaspoons, about 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets. To make the very large cookies about 6 to 8 inches in diameter, such as we serve at Dairy Hollow House, scoop batter with a 2 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, 3/8 of a cup capacity. You can get 2 to 3 of the large cookies on a sheet. (There is no need to "splat" the cookies out with your hand; they will spread while baking.) Bake small cookies in preheated oven for about 10 minutes; large will take about 20. Let the cookies cool on sheets 1 minute before transferring to rack. This recipe yields about 33 three-inch cookies or 15 six-inch cookies.