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" Don&amp;#039;t worry, if you didn&amp;#039;t know today was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, there&amp;#039;s still plenty of time to celebrate. To honor this momentous day (and we mean momentous), we tapped Kathleen King, owner of Tate&amp;#039;s Bake Shop in Southampton, New York, to share her five secret tips for baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Read on to get her secrets, and be sure to tag #CountryLiving in any cookie-related posts or pictures so we can see all the chocolatey goodness going on in kitchens across the country.   Kathleen King&amp;#039;s Tips for Making the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever  1. Always let baking sheets cool between batches. If the dough is placed on warm sheets, it could start to melt before it goes into the oven, resulting in flat cookies. Especially during holiday baking season, have extra baking sheets so you can bake batch after batch without waiting. Don&amp;#039;t rinse hot baking sheets under cold water to cool them, or they may warp. 2. For lining baking sheets, use no-hassle parchment paper. To get rolled paper to lay flat in the sheet, put a dab of butter in the corners of the baking sheet to hold the paper in place. I also love silicone baking mats (often sold under the brand name Silpat), which are reusable and sturdy. But you can always grease baking sheets the old-fashioned way, with butter, vegetable shortening, or nonstick vegetable oil spray. 3. If you cookies brown too quickly on the bottom, stack the sheet of cookies on a second baking sheet. This insulates the top sheet so the cookies bake at a slower rate.  4. Cookies made with vegetable shortening will spread less than those made with butter. Shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter, so the cookies hold their shape longer.  5. Bar cookies or brownies can be difficult to remove from the pan without breaking the first one. If you line the pan with aluminum foil before baking, the entire baked bar can be lifted out in one piece for easy cutting. Line the bottom and two opposite sides of the baking pan with a long piece of aluminum foil, allowing 2 inches of excess foil at both ends. Pleat the foil down the center to fit as needed ----- Plus:12 Totally Essential Baking Hacks \u00BB12 Crazy Amazing Things to Do with Chocolate Chips \u00BB35 Ways to Make Something New Out of Something Old \u00BB100+ Bedrooms You&amp;#039;ll Love! \u00BB "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/a5239/kathleen-king-chocolate-chip-cookies/>