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Chocolate Chip Cookies -- Bake-Off III


Kerry Beal

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Tried the Alton Brown recipe today. Very, very good. Next, I'll try the Cooks Illustrated recipe to compare.

Hi Cookie Dibs,

Cook's Illustrated's "Thick and Chewy Triple Chocolate Cookies" are great also!

There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with CHOCOLATE.
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I'll humbly add my chocolate chip recipe (click!), which I've been fiddling with since I was little. The cookies end up chewy with crisp edges, and incredibly rich. I've been approached by quite a few people to make these and sell them, but somehow I never got around to it :smile:.

They look like this:

gallery_9138_54_78215.jpg

(psst - Kerry, there are now 10 chocolate chip recipes in RecipeGullet)

Edited by tejon (log)

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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I once had a recipe based on the Neiman Marcus cc cookie which had been tweaked by replacing some of the white flour with whole wheat flour. Sounds like they'd be too earthy and not very fun, but something about the wheat flour tamed the gluten and gave the dough a nice nutty flavor. I also like the addition of espresso powder (I just use Folger's crystals because it's cheaper) which rounds out the dough and balances with the chocolate.

But I lost the recipe somewhere somehow, so have to try to recreate it :(

Stephanie Crocker

Sugar Bakery + Cafe

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I was just going to post them! You beat me to it.

They are really good cookies. I made half the recipe and then gave most of the cookies to a friend (both excellent ways to reduce the rick of gaining those lbs. you mentioned  :wink: )

I halve most cookie recipes btw. I really don't need 36 cookies in the house when there's just the 2 of us eating them!

Sorry! I couldn't help it! Your picture made them look soooooooo good! :wub:

I mixed up a batch last night (a few days later than planned). The dough is sitting in my fridge, and I'll be baking them as soon as I get off the computer. I didn't have any nuts handy, so I added some dried cranberries. I'm thinking they will make the cookies a little more healthful, so I can eat more without feeling guilty. :biggrin:

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I made the Chewy and it was quite tasty. I did find it a tad greasy. Do any of you Plugra-users adjust the amount of butter to compensate for the higher butterfat content?

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I made the Chewy and it was quite tasty.  I did find it a tad greasy.  Do any of you Plugra-users adjust the amount of butter to compensate for the higher butterfat content?

I agree that the Chewy is a bit greasy. I'm wondering if the problem will be solved by softening the butter til very soft, but not melted...but the flavor is excellent and the texture was perfect.

Definitely will experiment!

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I made the Chewy and it was quite tasty.  I did find it a tad greasy.  Do any of you Plugra-users adjust the amount of butter to compensate for the higher butterfat content?

I agree that the Chewy is a bit greasy. I'm wondering if the problem will be solved by softening the butter til very soft, but not melted...but the flavor is excellent and the texture was perfect.

Definitely will experiment!

don't think it will work. the whole idea of melting the butter is to release the water in the butter (break the emulsion). the water then gets soaked up and retained by the flour (bread flour is used because it can bind to more more water than lower protein flour).

i'm also curious about the effect of higher fat butter. i'm guessing you'd want to compensate ... less butter and more of another liquid (milk, etc.). otherwis you might get more greasy and less chewy. but the better butter might improve the flavor ... butter is the dominant flavor with these cookies.

Notes from the underbelly

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Tried the Alton Brown recipe today. Very, very good. Next, I'll try the Cooks Illustrated recipe to compare.

Martha Stewart did a chocolate chip recipe contest and a recipe by Jacqes Torres won. I made them, but very cakey and I did not like them at all...

Great site....This is my first post!

welcome! please post your results. i've been curious about this, but too lazy to make the c.i. cookies ...

Notes from the underbelly

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Hello, never thought I'd have anything to contribute but I was surprised to find the recipe that I've been using for years in RecipeGullet. It's the Chocolate Chip Cookies With Pudding recipe.

When I first tried this recipe out I found them to be a bit greasy so I reduced the amount of butter to 3/4 cup. I made them this past Saturday and they turned out well (just by my standards :raz:). The pictures, if you're interested, are here.

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Do you guys prefer a chocolate batter (like the Korova cookie!) or a non-chocolate batter? I personally prefer the former.

Korovas are great!

Just tried the Alton Brown Chewy recipe -- they look picture perfect, but I find them light in the flavor department :huh: . . .maybe I just prefer MORE chocolate -- such as Korovas.

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I made the CCC from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". They're very good, and the people at work who have been lucky enough to share have really enjoyed them. I was too lazy to toast some nuts (I always toast nuts if they're called for in baking), so I added a handful of dried cranberries instead.

I think, though, that I prefer I CCC that has oatmeal, too. My favourite has been =Mark's Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies (posted in RecipeGullet), to which I add chocolate chips.

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I don't think I could search much beyond Tejon's recipe. Her cookies rock sooooo hard. Life just doesn't get any better than sitting at a potluck near a basket of Tejon's cookies. Didn't care one bit about looking like a little piggy scarfing them down, one after another. Resistance is futile. :laugh:

Pamela Wilkinson

www.portlandfood.org

Life is a rush into the unknown. You can duck down and hope nothing hits you, or you can stand tall, show it your teeth and say "Dish it up, Baby, and don't skimp on the jalapeños."

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  • 2 weeks later...
and before i forget, here's an interesting link to a search for cc cookie perfection....and it  links back to.... well, egullet of course.  :cool:

it's a mobious strip, or a mystery inside an enigma, this cookie thing.  as well as a noble quest.

http://wordstoeatby.blogspot.com/2004/12/b...ip-cookies.html :smile:

Today I made a batch of these - they are indeed very good, though I am not a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies. But I'll have to see if the crisp edges and chewy insides last tomorrow. Or if the edges just dry out... or the cookie just becomes soft throughout.

I also baked a batch of Alton Brown's The Chewy for comparison. Based on everyone's votes, I guess I expected more (and yes, I agree with a couple of others that they're a tad greasy). They were a little soft, perhaps I didn't bake them long enough. I froze some of the dough and will try baking them a little longer tomorrow. Yes, despite all that, the dozen I baked are down to two... my husband and sons are not too fussy about their choc chip cookies!

I did reduce the sugar in both recipes by 15% (both brown and white), so I don't know how much this affected my results. Based on just today's efforts I think I prefer the former recipe.

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I made Tejon's recipe over the weekend. They are definitely chewy, but I felt the oats were a little too prominent (I used quick cooking as the recipe specified) for my liking in what's meant to be a chocolate chip cookie rather than an oatmeal cookie. And they didn't have the slightly crusty edges that most people like.

So far, the Unbelievably Good Chocolate Chunk Cookies are winning for me. Might go try a recipe with oatflour next, like the fake Neiman Marcus one.

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I made Tejon's recipe over the weekend.  They are definitely chewy, but I felt the oats were a little too prominent (I used quick cooking as the recipe specified) for my liking in what's meant to be a chocolate chip cookie rather than an oatmeal cookie.  And they didn't have the slightly crusty edges that most people like.

So far, the Unbelievably Good Chocolate Chunk Cookies are winning for me.  Might go try a recipe with oatflour next, like the fake Neiman Marcus one.

Could you please tell me where to find this recipe?

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I'll humbly add my chocolate chip recipe (click!), which I've been fiddling with since I was little. The cookies end up chewy with crisp edges, and incredibly rich. I've been approached by quite a few people to make these and sell them, but somehow I never got around to it  :smile:.

They look like this:

gallery_9138_54_78215.jpg

(psst - Kerry, there are now 10 chocolate chip recipes in RecipeGullet)

They're in the link above. I've baked mine a little longer this morning to see if I like them better that way :smile:

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I made Tejon's recipe over the weekend.  They are definitely chewy, but I felt the oats were a little too prominent (I used quick cooking as the recipe specified) for my liking in what's meant to be a chocolate chip cookie rather than an oatmeal cookie.  And they didn't have the slightly crusty edges that most people like.

So far, the Unbelievably Good Chocolate Chunk Cookies are winning for me.  Might go try a recipe with oatflour next, like the fake Neiman Marcus one.

Could you please tell me where to find this recipe?

Was this the one you were looking for? Unbelievably Good Chocolate Chip Cookie

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Hello, never thought I'd have anything to contribute but I was surprised to find the recipe that I've been using for years in RecipeGullet. It's the Chocolate Chip Cookies With Pudding recipe.

When I first tried this recipe out I found them to be a bit greasy so I reduced the amount of butter to 3/4 cup. I made them this past Saturday and they turned out well (just by my standards  :raz:). The pictures, if you're interested, are here.

Thanks for the tip on the butter.

Your pictures are better than the ones in some cookbooks!

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Has anybody made Amanda Hesser's Flat and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies?

I know, I read the blogger's comments, but I made the Unbelievably Good Chocolate Chip Cookie and I felt it was a waste of my Valrhona chocolate.

I would make Tejon's, but I don't like oatmeal in my cookies unless they are oatmeal raisin.

May

Totally More-ish: The New and Improved Foodblog

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