Two
months ago amidst the hulking shapes of my newly acquired kitchen gadgets, I
started project cookie tech. Cookie tech
™ was my attempt to build a bigger better chocolate chip cookie. I had the technology. I had the ingredients. I was sure I could do better than the
packaged chocolate chip dough packs at the grocery store. I knew it would not be easy. I knew it would require devotion. So began my quest—for cookies! For world
domination! For science!
Muhahahahahahaha!!
Before we begin dear reader, you
must understand something. My wife loves
desserts. She has sampled coco delights
across the country. Her quest for
confectionary perfection is endless—boundless—a glorious obsession that has
driven baristas mad, waitresses to ruin, and threatened the very fabric of the
time space continuum. When I say that I
wanted to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie I knew that my soul rested in
the balance. This was a life’s work—good
work—but fraught with peril.
As
any good scientist, I began with research.
Making cookies is not art, it is science…science! Every step of the process has been
painstakingly investigated. However,
opinions on what is the “perfect” chocolate chip cookie and how to reliably
manufacture said wonder vary widely. I
drew inspiration from three sources.
The kitchenaid chocolate chip
cookie recipe that came with my mixer:
This is a standard no frills
recipe. You get cookies—no muss—no
fuss—just the basics.
The Alton Brown chewy chocolate
chip cookie recipe:
This is a slightly better recipe
with a few tips and tricks mixed in. I
learned a lot contrasting the results of the kitchenaid and Brown recipes.
The New York Times chocolate chip
cookie recipe:
If you love cookies, then you must
read this article. It is a beautiful,
dare I say it, sweet and buttery treatment of the lineage of this iconic
dessert. From these three fonts of
wisdom I took my inspiration.
One
thing was clear, not all cookies are created equal. Chewy, crisp, gluten free, silver dollar,
gigantic, light, fluffy, dense, thick, wafer-thin, there are endless
variations. Fortunately, for me that is,
my wife and I have similar tastes when it comes to this delicacy.
·
They should be chewy—not crunchy—not doughy.
·
They should be big enough that you can take a
bite out of one and have plenty left to nibble.
·
They should be thick with melted chocolate—not
delicately seasoned.
·
They should keep their consistency over time—not
drying out after a couple hours.
·
The recipe should be simple enough that I can
make it without a bunch of fiddly details.
Then I made about 150 cookies over a month and a
half. Heed my words, learn from my
mistakes. What follows is the wonder of
the age—a cookie so perfect that I yet live, my soul my own—for the moment.
Ingredients:
·
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted sweet cream
butter. Make sure to get real unsalted
butter. The amount of salt matters when
combined with baking soda and flower. Butter
and milk fat in general are the binding agents that give the cookie its rich
flavor. Do not skimp on quality.
·
1 box or 2 cups packed dark brown sugar. Make sure this is fresh and not dried out or
solid brick-like to the touch. brown sugar should give a little under pressure
due to the molasses content. If it does
not your cookies will not have the desired texture. Do not substitute granulated sugar.
·
1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk. Separating the egg is the only fiddly part of
this recipe. Eggs provide the second
binding agent as well as some of the protein for the chemical reactions to
mature correctly. You would not think
that the loss of 1 egg white would make that much difference but I assure you
it does.
·
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or optionally 1
teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon coconut extract. This is what gives the dough its mellow
character. The coconut melds well with
the buttery sugary tones of toffee and caramel created by the brown sugar and
butter.
·
Optionally, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. I know this is not part of a traditional
recipe. I tried it in one of my batches
and it sets off the chocolate really well—especially if you are using 60% or
better premium coco.
·
3 cups high quality all-purpose flower. I tried cake flower, bread flower, all-purpose
flower, and mixtures thereof. All-purpose
gave me the best results. Changing the
type of flower changes the amount of gluten and protein which changes the
arability and texture of the dough. I
recommend gold metal or king Arthur flower for preference but feel free to
modify as desired.
·
1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt. I like this version because there are no
fiddly fractional amounts of baking agents.
Be sure to get the quantity exactly right, these are the magic powders
that make the process work.
·
12 ounces’ semisweet chocolate morsels or 12-16
ounces of the darkest purest chocolate you can find. I used a 12-ounce package of nestles morsels
and a 1-pound
package of Valrhona 72% chocolate disks
in
testing. Actually I bought so many
packages of the Nestles morsels that my grocery store coupon generator
continues to dispense discounts for them on every other purchase. You can definitely taste the difference in
the chocolate. I suggest getting the
recipe right first before dropping $16 or more on quality chocolate but even
with the Nestles the results were excellent.
Instructions:
·
Remove all ingredients from the refrigerator and
let come to room temperature. The butter
will be handled in step 2. Everything
else needs to be at the same temperature for best results.
·
In 20 second segments, melt the butter in a
microwave. The objective is to render
the sticks into liquid, not get them sizzling hot.
·
Add your melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon
to the bowl of your stand mixer. Put on
the second setting—scraping the side of the bowl every 30 seconds—until the
brown sugar is incorporated.
·
Separate one egg. Add one whole egg and the separated yolk to a
bowl with the vanilla and coconut extract.
Beet the mixture with a fork until fully blended.
·
Add the egg mixture to your stand mixer’s bowl
and process on setting three until fully combined (approximately 2
minutes.) Depending on the shape of your
bowl, you may have to scrape brown sugar dregs off the side for further
incorporation. Continue until the
mixture is soft and creamy and the ingredients are evenly combined.
·
Sift together the flower, baking soda, and salt. I put my sifter into a mixing bowl, measure
out my ingredients into the sifter, and then pick up the sifter and slowly turn
the crank until everything is processed.
This has the added benefit of catching any overflow—there is no net loss
of material.
·
Put your mixer on setting 1. Over a couple minutes’ scoop in the flower
mixture giving time after each scoop (usually a 10 second count) for the new
material to mix into the dough. After
the flower mixture is completely added, move the mixer up to setting 3 for 30
seconds. Your objective is to get
everything mixed with no dry pockets of flower.
You do not want to over-mix the dough or the cookies will not rise and
fall correctly. You may need to scrape
the side of the bowl to make sure all the material is getting blended before
setting the mixer on the faster setting.
·
Scrape the side of the bowl and knock residual
dough free of the paddle before turning the mixer to setting 1 and slowly
adding the chocolate over a couple minutes.
If you add it all at once or if you add it too quickly the mechanism may
jam or fail to incorporate the chocolate completely. Do not over-mix. You want to stir the bowl just long enough
that the chocolate is evenly distributed.
·
Cover the top of the mixing bowl with foil and
let sit in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours.
This process lets the dough firm up, allows the gluten to relax, and
lets the moisture permeate the starches.
Do not freeze the dough—the moisture cannot permeate if it turns to
ice. Play around with the time left in
fridge—it will impact the end texture and color. I like 24 hours but others may wish to go as
long as 48.
·
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Do not move it up to 350 or 375 as many
recipes recommend. Trust me, there is a
method to my madness.
·
Line two half baking sheets with parchment
paper. I used to use the silicone baking
mats but parchment paper is so much easier to clean up and I never get even
slightly burned bottoms with this method. Make sure there is enough paper to cover the
edges of the sheets. The dough will burn
if it contacts the bare metal.
·
Using a large cookie scoop
Evenly
lay out 3 rows of 4 cookies (12 total) on each sheet. Ideally this should take some work since the
dough should be very firm. The cookie
scoop ensures each cookie is exactly the same shape and weight. The flat underside of the cookie should rest
on the paper with at least 3 inches clearance between each dough ball. The size of the cookies is important. If you make them smaller then you will not
have enough surface area to generate the desired gradients of texture and
flavor. Do not take the dough out early,
you want it good and cold as you are scooping it.
·
Put the sheets in the oven on individual
racks. Set the timer for 7 minutes and
close the oven door. After 7 minutes,
switch the sheets so that they occupied the rack the other sheet started
on. Close the oven door and set the
timer for another 7 minutes. Just before
the timer is about to go off, turn off the oven entirely. This is where the magic happens. As the dough balls warm, the outer layers
soften and spread. The cooler center
takes longer to cook leaving the outer edges golden crispy brown and the
centers soft and perfectly cooked through.
You switch racks to make sure both sheets cook evenly in relation to the
heating elements. Depending on how your
oven cooks, you may want to let the cookies sit in the reduced heat for a
couple minutes. The longer than average
cooking time and lower heat lets the cookies spread without getting too crispy
or too thin. Those last three minutes
make or break the recipe. See what happens
right after the timer goes off and adjust accordingly with future batches.
·
Remove the sheets and let sit for 5-10
minutes. As the cookies come out of the
oven they should have risen slightly. Do
not bump the sheets or bang them around.
You are letting them sit long enough for the dough to settle down and
condense much like with quick breads.
·
Once the cookies have sunk and cooled slightly,
transfer to wire racks and let sit until completely cool or if you cannot
wait—and who could blame you—have a couple with milk or your morning coffee.
·
For me, the cookies are best 24 hours later
after they have been left in a container post initial feeding frenzy. The brown sugar causes the cookies to become
slightly chewy—not soft—with the perfect mix of flavor and texture.
·
You can freeze the dough after it has set in the
fridge for the allotted period of time.
It should be used within one month—up to a year if you vacuum seal it
first.
That is the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe
my friends. I give it to you. I Release it into the wild. Be afraid, very afraid;)
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