Good Chocolate Chip Cookies

I tend to think of so many batches of chocolate chip cookies as failures; they tend to flatten out and not have a thick, chewy, chunky appearance. I felt, too, that I had tried nearly every trick in the book to get a good chocolate chip cookie (refrigerating the dough, using bread flour instead of all purpose, etc.). Whilst perusing Cookies for Kids' Cancer: All the Good Cookies, I found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that sounded worth a try, even though it made me wince a little as half of the fat in the cookie is solid vegetable shortening, which I'd read can help forestall spreading problems with chocolate chip cookies. (At least the other half is good old butter.) As much as I hate to say it, I really liked how these cookies turned out: not too much spread, thick and chewy, lots of chocolate chips. I still can't decide if I should be appalled about the shortening; I'd probably be more upset if the cookies had turned out badly.