Not until the age of thirteen did I eat cookies fresh out of the oven. That was a few days after we moved to California from a small town in the Philippines. So even today, nothing can be more American to me than the warm gooeyness of chocolate chip cookies. I'm sure the majority of us have warm, fuzzy stories of coming home from school with the sweet aroma of baking permeating throughout the house and our mother greeting us with the warmest smile and a plateful of cookies.
Well, that was not my mom. That was actually my cousin, who shall remain nameless for fear that my mother will now blame her for my chosen profession. And rightly so because this cousin not only gave me
those cookies but let me shadow and help her when she baked. Maybe because my mother had to raise three kids on top of holding two jobs that she didn't have much inclination to bake us sweet delights. But I think that she just couldn't stand the restrictions of precise measurements and specified mixing procedures. She enjoyed and excelled at cooking, which allowed her abundant freedom to just throw things together.
Thus it fell upon me to indulge my family's sweet tooth, and I embraced this responsibility with gusto! As you might have guessed, my first attempt was with chocolate chip cookies using the recipe from the back of the Toll House chocolate chips package. I wouldn't call the endeavor a success, but the encouragement I got from my brothers, who ate the cookies as if I was the best baker in the house (which I was since nobody else in the house baked) kept me going. And to this day, I'm still going.
The recipe Rosalind and I are using is once again based on our
shortbread formula. To our basic ingredients (flour, butter, and granulated sugar), we are going to add the following in order to alter the spread and texture of our cookies:
Whole eggs: Using whole eggs will add more moisture (1 egg is 75% water). High moisture content is not only needed to produce cookie dough that can be scooped in mounds but also to produce chewy cookies.
Brown sugar contains a little bit of acid that will work with the baking soda to provide leavening. Adding brown sugar will increase the sugar content of the dough, which will add to the chewiness and crispness of the cookies as well as promote spreading (we can just plop the dough on the cookie sheet in mounds and they spread into nice circles). Lastly, since brown sugar also contains molasses, it adds another dimension to the flavor.
Baking soda is a leavening agent, meaning it produces and incorporates gas in the baked product; this helps the cookie rise a little bit. Baking soda reacts with moisture and acid so the dough is already leavening itself before we even put it in the oven. Heat speeds up the reaction but it's not needed. Baking soda also encourages spread.
A person's version of the perfect chocolate chip cookies differs from her neighbors. So here are a few pointers that will help you adjust the recipe to suit your taste.
1. The
temperature of the butter affects the spread of the dough. If you use cold butter, the cookies will spread less, and if you use butter that's a little too warm, that it is almost melty, the cookies will really spread. I prefer room temperature butter. This has something to do with how the butter mixes with the sugars, which brings up another point: With the shortbread cookies, we barely mix the butter and sugar. But with drop cookies, we usually
cream the butter and sugar, meaning we beat the butter and sugar together not only to blend them uniformly but also to incorporate air. Creaming will cause the cookies to puff and fall as they bake and also promote spread. If you want your cookies to pretty much stay put as they bake, blend the butter and sugar just into a uniform paste.
2. The
oven temperature also affects the outcome. Cookies are generally baked at 375F. Personally, 350F suits me best. Baking at a lower temperature (325F or 300F) will produce more spread and crisper texture since the baking time will increase thus allowing more time for moisture to evaporate.
3.
Greasing the pan will also create flatter cookies.
4. For softer, more cake-like cookies, decrease the sugar and fat content in relation to the amount of flour used. You can also add a little bit honey, molasses, or corn syrup.
Chocolate Chip Cookies8 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t baking soda
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
For flavoring:
1 t vanilla
a pinch of salt
3 cups chocolate chips (we like a lot of chocolate!)
Using the paddle attachment of the KitchenAid mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars (starting on low speed and gradually increasing to medium high) until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla, then the baking soda and salt. Mix well. Stir in the flour on low speed just until incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls of the dough about 2 inches apart on the sheet pan. Flattening the tops of the mounds a little bit will help start the spreading action.
This recipe makes quite a bit of cookies (over 4 dozen), so we scoop the dough in a container and freeze it for later use. The dough will be good frozen for a couple of months. When we feel like freshly baked cookies, we just take out what we need from the freezer. This cookie dough can be baked frozen (it will take a minute or two longer), but if you want the nice circular shape, you need to thaw out the dough before baking.
Bake the cookies at 350F for about 10 minutes. The cookies will still be slightly doughy but we like it that way!
