Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies


When it comes to cookies, who could resist a chocolate chip cookie? Nope, I can't bring myself to say no. Chocolate chip cookies are so widely accepted that they are thousands of recipes out there, each with its own unique characteristics. For me, the most memorable chocolate chip cookies would be those from Subway and Famous Amos, aptly representing the chewy chocolate chip cookie and the crunchy chocolate chip cookie respectively.  


I made these household favourites for the recent potluck meetup, choosing the crunchy chocolate chip cookies since they store rather well. This very recipe comes from Bakingmum. It's the first cookie I attempted  to bake when I first started out and to date, it's one of the best recipes I have encountered. The magic in these cookies lies in the presence of cornflour, giving the cookies their firm crunch.

Here I present to you, these simple yet fabulous cookies from Bakingmum (I omitted the nuts, added more chips and vanilla), which could possibly pass off as a not-too-shabby version of the Famous Amos cookie. When I passed a pack of cookies to one of my friends, she immediately recognized the recipe even before munching on it. The reason? She uses the same recipe too!  

Chocolate Chip Cookies ( recipe adapted slightly modified from Bakingmum)
Serving size: 40 -50 cookies
Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Flour sieve
3) Measuring spoon set
4) Spatula
5) Mixing bowl
6) Wire rack
7) baking trays/ cookie sheets

Ingredients:
125g butter softened at room temperature
75g caster sugar
60g brown sugar
1 egg, light beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (use less if using a good brand) or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
150g plain flour
45g cornflour
1/2 tsp bicarbonanate of soda (baking soda)
pinch of salt
170g chocolate chips

Making cookie dough:
Prepare dry ingredients: Sift plain flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Stir to ensure they are evenly distributed.

Creaming the butter: In a mixing bowl, cream butter with caster sugar and brown sugar untill light, pale and fluffy.

Adding egg and vanilla and dry ingredients: Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture. Mix to get a even mixture.

Add dry ingredients: Next, add in the dry ingredients. Mix and stop once the flour is all absorbed. A soft dough should be obtained. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with spatula

Adding chocolate chips: Stir in the chocolate chips and ensure a well distribution.

Chilling and shaping of dough: Chill dough for 30-45 minutes to firm it up. Spoon heaped teaspoons of dough onto lined cookies trays, leaving some space between each cookie dough. Each cookie should have about 4 chips.To prevent cookies from spreading, freeze shaped cookie dough for 10 minutes (with the cookie tray/s).

Baking Cookies: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Bake cookies for 20-25 minutes or until medium browned.

Cooling and storing: Allow cookies to cool on their trays for 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Cool cookies completely on wire rack before storing in air-tight containers.

Notes:
1) If the cookies do soften for some reasons, bake them for 10 minutes at 180 degrees C and allow to cool. The crunch will return.

Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes

26 comments:

  1. I'm the fan of crunchy chocolate chip cookies! Hardly resist the buttery flavor with the crunchy texture. I have been using the recipe from HHB but it's good to have another choices. I shall give this a try and pack it into Christmas gift. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Actually, it is very considerate of you to bake us each a pack of choc cookies. The cookies really taste good & crunchy. Thanks for sharing the recipe :)

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  3. ooo it's hard to find a good recipe for crunchy cookies!! :D i think it's the brown sugar which caused them to soften after a while, absorbing the moisture in the air.

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  4. These were very yummy cookies! But, wow, 20-25 min in the oven? Sounds quite long for cookies. Hope I get some success with these. Otherwise, will be ordering from you :)

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  5. Since I am a suck for chewy cookies, the rest was walloped up by my son thus I think it is good.

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  6. hey Grace,

    I love these crunchy chocolate chip cookies since they store very well and retain their crunch. Thats why I have been sticking to this recipe.

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    Hey Doris,

    you're welcome and thanks for the compliments.

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    Hey Jean,

    most cookies I have baked will tend absorb the moisture from our humid air and hence turn soft. These cookies when stored in airtight containers, keep their crunch really well. After a day or two, they still taste really fresh.

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  7. hey Bee Bee,

    I pass you some the next time we meet up ya.

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    Hey Eelin,

    the baking time is longer cos I froze my cookies so that they wont turn out flat. I am sure yours will turn out well.

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    Hey Edith,

    I enjoy chewy cookies as well as I enjoy crunchy cookies. I am still search for a good chewy chocolate chip cookie like subway's.

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  8. Ooooo goodie!! I want to try it! I'll be baking off cookies for this year's Christmas and in need of more easy and simple and yummy recipes NOW!!!!

    Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Hey, this was really good. I shared with my children and we had to fight for the last one! Hahaha...Not enough to feed four mouths! Thanks very much for the effort, specially prepared for us early in the dawn hours! :)

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  10. YOZ man!

    Yeah man cornflour is the secret ingredient!!. I heard that mixing the batter by hand is also another way. ( though I never really got to test that out- too messy for me).

    Eh recently I dunno why but all the subway cookies I ate all HARD one!

    ANyway thanks for sharing the recipe :)) Whoo! Another on my to do list for christmas. Haha what kind of log cake are you baking man! I'm stil thinking about what flavour I'm gonna make mine.

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  11. Hey Jenny,

    Look forward to your xmas goodies. I am sure they will turn out real good

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    Hey Jane,

    Thanks and welcome. I was supposed to make double the quantity per person. But didnt have enough time to finish baking all of the dough.

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    Hey Sheryl,

    I think I am too reliant on my mixer. I almost never mix my dough/batter by hand (unless its chiffon cake batter).

    Subway cookies are getting quite firm these days, I noticed that too. Wonder if it was too much gluten formation.

    I baked a matcha swiss roll yesterday, but dont think I will do it as a log cake. Most likely will make a chocolate one covered with dark ganache. Will be flipping thru my 2 swiss roll books for more ideas. Mocha and tiramisu log cakes sounds like great ideas for log cakes.

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  12. Hi. I'm new at baking and i tried several recipes for making cookies. all ended up being soft :(

    really envious of your crunchy cookies!! haha

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  13. Hi Jnlee,

    welcome to the world of baking. Hope you have fun!I think the recipes you tried are meant for soft chewy cookies or it could be due to the following:

    1) cookies are not stored in airtight containers. Hence they absorb moisture from the air and soften.
    2) climatic factors. In hot and humid weather, cookies tend to go soft easily.
    3) cookies are underbaked. try using a small batch of cookie dough (2 or 3 cookies) to test the desired baking time. Bake your cookies until they are lightly to medium brown (in the middle or lower third of the oven). Use the same baking time for the rest of your cookie dough. Note that the time taken for your oven may vary from that stated in recipes since different ovens work differently. The baking time can affect the texture of the cookie greatly.
    4)lack of flour.

    Do give this recipe a try. It is easy to execute and the results are good. Good luck and hope your cookies turn out fine =]

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  14. thank you so so much for the kind advice and information. I've tried the recipe and it turned out so much better than my previous batches.

    it didn't come out soft. only a little brittle in texture. but that's fine. thank you for sharing!

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  15. Hi,

    I just try the recipe but my cookie turn out black n bitter. Cnt taste the chocolate chips at all. I try adjust to 150 Degree C for 15mins but it still turn out like tis. Pls advise

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  16. hi anonymous,

    1) Did you measure the ingredients correctly?

    2) Do check the expiry date of all the ingredients you used. Did you substitute any of the ingredients? Are you using trusted brand names for the ingredients (need not be expensive brands)

    3) are you using fan-forced oven or conventional oven? if using fan-forced oven, the temperature needs to be lowered by 10-20 degrees c

    4) It might be an issue with your oven. Perhaps the calibration is off. Cookies should not be bitter at all. All cookies are sweet. If for some reason you find that the chocolate chips are too little, you can add more to your liking.

    There is nothing wrong with the recipe. I am very sure of that. I have used the recipe several times myself and many others have used this recipe from bakingmum.

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  17. Hi,

    I follow each measure very accurately and all the ingredients are just bought from phoon huat the day before. I am not sure wat type of oven is mine but i select the top n bottom fan mode. Maybe the next round I will lower the temp n shorten the baking time. Can I check with you when we put in the dry ingredients do we use the mixer to mix or just use metal spoon to mix in?

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  18. hi anonymous,

    Your oven is a fan forced oven (also known as a convection oven). If possible, choose the top and bottom heat function without the fan.

    If you cannot turn off the fan on your oven, you would need to use 160 degrees C to bake your cookies. Bake your cookies on the middle rack in the oven.

    Try baking your cookies with test batches of about 2 to 3 cookie dough. Once you get the hang of the oven temp and baking time, use the same temp and baking time for the rest of your cookies.

    It does not matter if you use the mixer or a metal spoon. Once the dry ingredients are absorbed, just scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a little more mixing and it would suffice.

    The chocolate chips that I have used are either Ghiradelli or Hershey's. I would not recommend using Phoon Huat's chocolate chips as the quality is not as good and the labels are confusing (they have chocolate chips and cocoa chips etc).

    If your cookies still turn out black, it means that your cookies are burnt. Your oven's temperature calibration is way off.

    Hope you have better luck with your cookies next time round.

    cheers,
    bakertan

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  19. Hi,

    Thanks for your reply.

    I will try to figure out my oven then. I think it must be the oven setting. Actually the 1st attempt i do in batches and i lower the temp n baking time each time till at the end i stop at 150 degree at 15mins but still bit dark brown... it does not look as nice as the one in your picture. Hmm.. maybe i need to watch the oven and stop the timer once i get the colour..

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  20. Hi there, I've just baked off about 25 biscuits from the dough. Too lazy to do the rest all at once. They're lovely. I like. Will put them on my blog soon and leave you a note here so you can go have a look at them. Thanks for the recipe. I've been looking so long for a simple crunchy chocolate chip biscuit recipe and this is it. Will try them with nuts next time.

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  21. Hi Ann,

    Glad you liked the cookies. Credit goes to Baking Mum whom I got the recipe from. This recipe which originated from her blog is really a good one.

    cheers
    bakertan

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  22. Hi, I just came across your recipe and the cookies look good. I've been trying various choc chip recipes for Hari Raya and this seems like a good option for crunchy cookies. I read your comment thread and there's a mention of ovens. Am I correct that microwave are conventional ovens while those big ones are usually convection oven? I think mine is convection oven as I usually will on the top and bottom heat. Not sure about the fan part though. I guess I should adjust the cooking temp?

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  23. Hi Sha,

    Microwave ovens are not suitable for baking. There are ovens that have both microwave and conventional functions though.

    Conventional ovens refer to ovens with top and bottom heat elements and they are used purely for baking.

    Convection ovens are basically conventional ovens with fan function.

    For ovens with fan (convection ovens), the temp used needs to be lower by 10-20 degrees from the stated temperatures in recipes.

    cheers

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  24. I prefer cookies which are light and soft like "Famous Amos" but unfortunately the cookies came out a bit crispy. Any reasons for that? I purely used plain flour. Could it be the reason for that. What is the purpose for the corn flour in the cookies.

    Thank you for sharing.

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  25. Hi,

    The famous amos cookies in singapore are not soft at all. In fact they are hard and crunchy, like the cookies from this recipe. I believe the corn flour helps the cookies to stay crunchy and light.

    ReplyDelete

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