Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Chewy VS Crunchy

The King Arthur Flour (KAF) Cookie Companion begins with the ultimate classic cookie: Chocolate Chip. It offers 2 basic recipes:


The Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie and Classic Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies


Variations follow these recipes, including Orange-Pistachio Milk Chocolate Chippers, Butterscotch Granola, etc. Each variation is based on one of the basic two recipes, Chewy or Crunchy.
I tried them both and they were both delicious. I had mini chocolate chips in the house when I baked the chewies and that was an excellent substitution. The Chewy cookies were plump and cake-like, and disappeared from our kitchen without much fuss. But the Crunchy. Ah the Crunchy. These were crispy and melted in your mouth like caramelized sugar, like airy seafoam, like butter brickle*.
When I told my husband that I was going to do a year of cookies he pushed out his belly, and whined "I'm too fat!" When I baked this second batch, I planned to give them all away as a Christmas gift. At which point he whined "WHAT? You're giving them ALL away?"
I, too, am a little sad I didn't save some of these nummies for us.
Classic Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies. The bomb. They tend to spread out on the cookie sheet so space them accordingly. Also, the KAF is full of lovely cooking tips, including this one:
"Does it matter how heavily I grease my baking sheets? . . . . Yes! Cookies . . . tend to spread as they bake. A heavily greased pan exacerbates the spreading; instead of picking up resistance from the pan as the cookie bakes and spreads, it glides right over that grease and spreads too far. The result? Thin edges, with a tendency to burn. . . . the best solution of all is parchment."
Revelation! I have started using parchment with all my cookies and I'm not looking back.

Here are the recipes:

The Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie (Phoebe Factor of 0)
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or white vinegar (I used cider)
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I am not a big fan of vanilla extract so I only used a teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2.25 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips and highly recommend this variation)

  • Preheat the oven to 375. Line two cookie sheets with parchment (or lightly grease).
  • In medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugars, corn syrup, and vinegar, then beat in eggs. Bean in the vanilla, salt baking powder and baking soda. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips.
  • Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, or until they're just set; the centers may still seem a bit underdone. Remove from the oven, cool on wire rack.
Classic Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies (Phoebe Factor of 0)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (again, I used only one)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or white vinegar (I used cider)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • Preheat the oven to 375. Line two cookie sheets with parchment (or lightly grease).
  • In large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugars, vanilla, salt, and vinegar. Beat in the egg, then the baking soda and flour. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  • Drop the dough by the teaspoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, until they're golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on wire rack.


*I admit it,  I don't know what butter brickle is, but it sounds yummy.

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Phoebe Factor


Phoebe is my devastatingly adorable 3 year old daughter. She likes to help me bake cookies.
All recipes will be ranked on a Phoebe Factor Scale of 0 to 10. 
0 = Cookies were baked after Phoebe went to bed or was otherwise not present
10 = Cookies were baked entirely by Phoebe.
As you can imagine, Phoebe brings a certain wild card to the kitchen counter. Just the other day I asked her to put the baking soda in using the mama sized measuring spoon*. I turned for a moment to start the oven and when I turned back, she was looking into the mixing bowl at a pile of baking soda. I asked her, "Did you put in just one, or more than one?"  Phoebe was confused. "More than one?" she asked me, not really sure what that meant.

*Phoebe has labeled our measuring spoons according to her favorite classification system:
Tablespoon = papa sized spoon
Teaspoon = mama sized spoon
1/2 teaspoon = big sister spoon
1/4 teaspoon = baby brother spoon

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Chewey Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my new year's resolution for 2010:
Go through the entire King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

This is definitely not a resolution to make my butt any smaller..
Toootney said I should blog about it. So here we go!

I love this book. It covers the basics, from chocolate chip and sugar cookies, to whoopie pies and lemon bars.

On Sunday I made the first recipe: Chewey Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I used mini chocolate chips instead of big ones because I happened to have some in the cupboard from my cookie party meringue fiasco.

This recipe calls for vinegar and baking soda which causes a foamy reaction in the dough, resulting in truly soft and chewey cookies. My 3 year old daughter, Phoebe, does not seem particularly interested in them, but strangely enough, she is not much of a cookie eater. Maybe this year I'll discover a recipe that brings out the cookie monster in her.