Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Two Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

Bluepaintred emailed me to ask if I had a recipe for soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies. Well, yes...and no.

I have a tried and true recipe that makes cookies that stay soft, but they are more cake-like than chewy. It's the final recipe of this post, and can be made with either semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips.

I also have a recipe that I've never tried before that is supposed to make chewy-gooey cookies.

My understanding is that the secret to chewy cookies is as much in the method as in the ingredient list. Apparently, using melted butter instead of room temperature butter will help make the cookies chewy, as will the addition of a second egg yolk and the use of brown sugar. Don't over-bake the cookies; remove them from the oven when they are just starting to brown around the edges and the tops have just lost their wet appearance -- don't wait for them to look brown on top. Cooling the cookies on the pan, rather than moving them off the to a cooling rack, will help them stay chewy. Finally, when you store your cookies in a cookie jar or other airtight container, try putting a slice of bread in with them. It helps keep the cookies moist.

Here's the untried recipe. I don't think I will have time to make a batch today, but maybe Blue will, and will let us know how they turn out. I'll try to get to them myself within a few days.


Big, Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (if using salted butter, you can omit the 3/4 t. of salt)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 325° F (165° C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Cover dough and chill for about 45 minutes.*

Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool completely on baking sheets.

Makes about 1-1/2 dozen large cookies. For smaller cookies, use smaller amount of dough and reduce baking time by a minute or two.

*If your cookies are too flat, next time try chilling longer. If they aren't flat enough, next time omit the chilling step.

2 comments:

Fantastagirl said...

maybe my problem is that I've been using margarine instead of butter and that's why my dough is too runny and I have to add oatmeal to thicken it up.

Blogarita said...

Fantastagirl: I don't use margarine because of the trans-fat, but if you use it, try using the actual stick form (instead of the softer kind in a tub or anything that is "whipped"). You should end up with similar results as butter. The soft and whipped kinds have more water and air in them and cause the dough to be too thin or the cookies to flatten during baking.

Also, try chilling the dough before forming the cookies.

:)