Since the cookie was designed to be cakey, you have to rework pretty much the entire recipe to get a chewy, crisper cookie. You may have to play around with the revisions a few times as volume measurements are very inaccurate and it's impossible to determine the ratios of ingredients against the amount of flour. Here's the revision. I also included an explanation of the reasons for the changes. Please read through the explanations as I have a note in there about measuring the flour.
Note: I indicate temperature of a couple of ingredients. Temperatures are important as they effect rise and texture.
====
Preheat oven 350°
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (2 1/2 sticks), no higher than 65°
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar)
2/3 cup brown sugar (cane sugar)
2 large eggs, 68° - 70°
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups all purpose higher protein flour (King Arthur Brand)
1 teaspoon baking SODA
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained well
- Cream butter and sugar on medium speed (kitchenaid 4) until it is light and fluffy. About 4 minutes.
- Shift flour, baking soda, and salt to ensure even distribution of baking soda.
- Beat in egg one at a time to incorporate.
- Mix in vanilla
- Mix in flour in 3 additions
- Mix in pineapple
- Chill the dough for 30 minutes
- Drop rounded teaspoons of dough on ungreased baking sheet. Rotate sheet after 5 minutes. Check for doneness after another 4 minutes. Exact bake time depends on how caramelized you like your cookies. The more caramelization, the chewier and crispier the cookie.
Explanations:
Oven temperature: the changes from shortening to butter, plus an increase in butter means a lower fat melting point and more spread. So reduce the oven temperature to 350°.
Leavening: the use of baking powder will create a cakey cookie. Replace the 2 teaspoons of baking powder with 1 teaspoon baking soda. Baking soda is more powerful than baking powder so you use less
Flour: use a higher protein all purpose flour like King Arthur. Lower protein flours like Gold Medal and Pillsbury create a softer cake like crumb in a cookie.
Sugar amount: White granulated sugar produces a crispier, thinner cookie. Brown sugar produces a chewier, thicker cookie. The combination of the two sugars is good. But to get a slight more crispier cookie, increase the white sugar and reduce the brown sugar. 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar; 2/3 cups brown sugar.
Sugar type: cane sugar and sugar beet sugar do not perform the same. Cane sugar caramelizes very well. Sugar beet sugar does NOT caramelize well at all. Sugar caramelization is very important to flavor and texture. So using cane sugar will give you superior flavor and texture. Cane sugar is labeled as such. If the package does not state "cane", it will mostly like be beet sugar.
Shortening: replace the shortening with butter for 3 reasons.
- The creaming method is mechanical leavening. The fat traps air bubbles, causing the dough to rise.
- The higher the rise, the more cake-like cookie as you have less baking surface to dough contact. You need to counter some of that leavening from creaming for a crisper, chewy cookie.
- Shortening has a higher melting point than butter. So it hold the aeration longer in the baking. The aeration and slower melt time sets the dough faster so you get less spread. The lower melting point of butter will cause the dough to spread more. The more spread, the more baking surface to dough contact. The result is a chewer, crispier cookie
- Shortening has no water. Moisture from the ingredients like butter and the pineapple will aid gluten development when baked long enough.
Butter amount : since the recipe is in volume I can only estimate the ratio of fat to flour. The original recipe has approximately 25% fat to flour. That's a bit too low for spread. A standard cookie like a chewy chocolate chip cookie will have 60% - 70% fat to flour. But since this recipe is volume measurements, I'm being a bit conservative with 1 1/2 cups butter.
Butter temperatures: The ideal temperature to cream butter and sugar is 68° to know more than 70°. There's no such thing as room temperature. Right now my house is nearly 80°. So technically that's room temperature. Tonight it's going to drop below 65°. And technically that will be room temperature. So you cannot use "room temperature" to determine the temperature of an ingredient. You have to use a thermometer.
Dough temperature: in a commercial kitchen they talk a lot about finished dough temperature--the temperature of the dough after its mixed. It is a critical factor in determining the quality of your finished product. Finished dough temperature determines everything from fermentation rate in yeast dough to the spread of cookie dough during baking. In breadmaking they actually calculate for heat from friction to determine the starting temperature of the flour and water before they start mixing. That ensures a finished dough temperature within the desired range. Temperature really is an ingredient.
My standard practice is to just chill my cookie doughs. I just cover the mixing bowl and stick it straight into the refrigerator after mixing. Even 30 minutes rest in the refrigerator will enhance flavor, color, and texture.
But if you want to bake it immediately check the dough temperature. You don't wanted a dough temperature above 72°. Starting with too warm a dough will cause it to spread considerably more in the oven. They go temperature is it likely to be too cold. The mixing alone creates enough heat friction too warm the dough well above 70°.
Measuring: this is a heritage recipe. When using a heritage recipe you have to consider the methods that would have been used at the time the recipe was developed and the brands of ingredients that were popular at the time. The method to measure flour by volume some 30 to 40 years ago was dip and sweep. In my home economics class, dip and sweep was the method taught. Chances are this recipe was developed using the dip and sweep. If you are not using the dip and sweep method to measure your ingredients I would recommend it for this recipe to ensure you use enough flour. If you use the spoon and level method, chances are you aren't using enough flour. Which would explain why the one recipe made a liquid batter like dough. Make sure you whisk your flour a bit before you dip the measuring cup. You want enough flour, but not too much.
which was very good. I loved the flavor as well. However, they are way too cakey for me 
