Thursday, June 3, 2010

Chocolate Chip Cookies


It has been quite a while since I baked any cookies. Previously, my bakes were mainly in the area of tarts or cakes. Now its time to give more attention to my cookie recipes.

Cookies always warrant a satisfying treat for me whenever I am hungry or just itching for a munch. I could eat several of them in one go. This was the case for my one-day old chocolate chip cookies. I ate about 12 of the 16 cookies I baked and they were all gone the next day. I did have the intention to share it with some friends though, guess they just did not have the fortune to enjoy these snacks.


Baking chocolate chip cookies seems like a easy task. Getting the desired texture is another different story. Some people like it dense and chewy - supporters of the Subway cookie, others like it crunchy like the Famous Amos cookies. For me, I am alright with both the chewy and crunchy variations. Would prefer the Subway variation slightly better though.  


The recipe I referred to churned out cookies that were soft, cake-like and tender with crunchy crisp edges. These were unlike any cookies I have tasted. After a day of storage in non-airtight containers, they became slightly chewy. It was a good break from the usual chocolate chip cookies.


This is the first time that I am making giant 2-tablespoon sized cookies. Making these large cookies required less effort to shape the dough into mounds and scooping them onto the baking trays. However, I could only bake 3 to 4 such cookies in a batch due to the size of my baking trays.

Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies ( recipe adapted from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson)
Serving size: 15 - 18 cookies
Equipment and materials: 
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowl
5) Wire rack
6) Cookie trays/Baking trays
7) Flour sieve
8) Parchment/baking paper
9) Weighing scale

Cookie Dough:
125g plain (all-purpose) flour
20g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
115g unsalted butter, softened
80g light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 egg (60g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
185g semisweet chocolate chips
extra chocolate chips (see notes)

Method:
Prepare Oven: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Prepare dry ingredients: Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Use a balloon whisk to whisk the mixture well to ensure uniform distribution.

Making the batter: Beat the butter on medium low speed for about 3 minutes. Add in both sugars and beat for a further 3 minutes. The butter mixture should be light and fluffy. Notice that the volume of butter mixture will increase noticeably after beating. Next, add in the egg and beat until combined. Blend in the vanilla extract to ensure the flavour is evenly distributed.

Incorporating the flour and chips: Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 2 additions. Beat until just combined for each addition. This is when all flour particles are absorbed and there is no visible trail. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to ensure that the dough is evenly mixed. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips.

Shaping the dough: Scoop 2-tablespoon-size dough onto the baking trays lined with baking paper. Leave some space between each cookie. The cookies will spread to about 3 inches during baking.

Ready to bake: Bake cookies for about 13 - 15 minutes. Cookie centers will be soft but will set upon cooling. Leave cookies to cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Note:
1) Use one cookie dough as a test batch to determine the required baking time for your oven.

2) The last bit of cookie dough may have less chocolate chips. Fold in some extra chocolate chips.

3 comments:

  1. Hey, great minds think alike! Haha! I'd been planning on talking about chewy choc chip cookie ... Just up and running on my blog ...

    Agree with you. That's why I bake cookies almost every week for snacking at work. Nice stuff to munch on ... moreish treat ... Both chewy and crunchy are great. But, how did you manage to gobble up 12 huge cookies in one sitting!!?? @@ 佩服 。。。

    Just curious about how the recipe looks like. Are you gonna share it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Pei-lin,

    I am going to try out more recipes on choc chip cookies in future. There is one ultra chocolatey choc chip cookie on my mind which I have attempted before. it has a fudgy brownie like texture.

    How I wish i can bake cookies every week. There is too many recipes on my mind at the moment to be baking cookies weekly. My cookies are usually all eaten up the next day and choc chip cookies are the most popular in the house.

    yes I am going to share this recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haha! I get what you mean ... Nowadays, due to my situation, I bake and cook foods that are more practical, e.g. bread, cookies, some "portable" dishes. I don't eat out. So, the foods are for my breakfast, lunch, snacking at work. I do bulk cooking and baking every weekend for the following week. How I wish I have the luxury to try other types of bakes and dishes e.g. cakes, verrines, pies and tarts. I'll do these when special occasions arise. Hahaha! Good alibis ... But I do try out different recipes for the same genres of bakes and dishes ...

    I do believe you can bake cookies regularly since you've got supportive fans in the house. Yes, even here, choc chip cookies are like the only big cookie ... Isn't it nice when you don't need to wipe out all the food by yourself? Haha!

    Yockelson's recipe uses cake flour and less salt ... Interesting ... I suppose a little less gluten makes the cookies more tender? Thanks for sharing it!

    ReplyDelete

Dear readers, thanks for visiting my humble little blog. Feel free to leave a message so that I can learn and be a better baker. Its a great feeling to share our culinary experience and adventures in the kitchen.

Thank you and have a nice day! Cheers =]

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