Chocolate chip cookie catastrophe.

[Stephanie Brim]

I made chocolate chip cookies using the recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli chocolate chips bag tonight. I made the mistake, I think, of not following my gut, but something seemed fishy.

First of all, the recipe used a whopping 2 cups of sugar. That seemed a bit much. Second, the recipe called for only baking soda. Most chocolate chip recipes that I've used previously call for both soda and powder in equal measure.

I did nothing to change the recipe other than use one cup of chocolate chips and one cup of peanut butter chips. My cookies came out flat and almost hard. Definitely not the lovely crisp edges I was looking for. I'm guessing the problem is the lack of baking powder, but I'm not really sure.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Anyone want to weigh in with what went wrong? Recipe said to bake at 375. Flat. So I went to 425 to see if anything would be different. Still flat.

From now on I'm sticking to my own recipes.

[jgm]

One of the reasons I keep "Joy of Cooking" around, is for those times when my gut tells me a recipe doesn't look quite right. I could speculate on a few possibilities, but there's no point in that, because there are several extremely experienced bakers on eG who have a much better understanding of baking than I, and I know they'll be able to offer much more sound information. There are quite a few variables in even something as simple as chocolate chip cookies. It's not only a matter of the exact ingredients and quantities, but things such as the order in which you add the ingredients, and the amount of mixing you do, can influence the outcome. (My home ec teacher was right. It really is necessary to follow the instructions.)

Did you taste them, or were you so irritated that you didn't want to? If you tasted them, what did you think of the flavor?

I don't have my copy of the JofC handy, or I'd look it up for you. Obviously, recipes can vary, but for general proportions, it's a handy reference that will help me decide about issues such as whether I'm looking at a misprint, or whether the recipe just looks out of whack.

Edited October 9, 2008 by jgm (log)

[Stephanie Brim]

Flavor is all right, but the texture is just SO Far off. My gut is telling me to cut the sugar by 1/2 cup and add at least 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. I'll try a half batch and see.

[tmriga]

I agree that chocolate chip cookie recipes can vary as much as the clouds in the sky.

In this case, there is 1/4 cup more of each type of sugar, otherwise the recipe is exactly the same as the Original Nestle Toll House cookie recipe, the Nestle recipe using only 3/4 cup of both the granulated and brown sugar.

Link to Nestle recipe:

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=18476

If you decide to try this again, use the lesser amount of sugar.

Theresa

[paulraphael]

I'd take a closer look at the mixing method. Could you describe how you mixed, including the final consistency of any creamed butter/sugar, and the temperature of the dough before it went into the oven? Did you chill the dough at all before baking?

It does look like a lot of sugar, but I don't see major problems there besides them being too sweet.

The baking soda should provide plenty of leavening. It reacts with the acidic molasses in the brown sugar.

[Stephanie Brim]

We all like images here, no matter how horrid, so here's a camera phone photo to illustrate the difference.

http://mentalexperimental.org/images/choco...cookiescomp.jpg

On the left is the first batch. The right is the second.

I cream the butter and sugar for a couple minutes at least before adding the eggs one at a time and mixing until fluffy. Then I mix in the flour in two batches, followed by folding in the chocolate chips/candy/nuts/dried fruit that I use in a cookie by hand with a wooden spoon or a spatula. I don't chill the batter, and I drop using a teaspoon size cookie scoop onto insulated aluminum sheets. This isn't the first time I've had a chocolate chip cookie recipe I didn't like, and I still haven't found the perfect one yet.

The second batch had half the sugar and a little baking powder added as well. I think the next time I'll just do soda.

[merstar]

Check out some of the recipes in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake-Off:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=102308

[nibor]

Don’t want to brag but people say my cc cookies are the best ever, and you are almost there: Increase the flour to 2 ½ cups, and decrease both the white and brown sugar to ½ cup each. Bake until the edges brown. Don't skimp on the chips and nuts.

[paulraphael]

It's hard to say what went wrong, but it's possible that the bad batch got overmixed during the creaming stage. That often leads to flat cookies. it's also possible (but unlikely) that the flour got overmixed.

And even though the recipe doesn't call for it, most cc cookies are improved by chilling for several hours before baking. especially ones like these that use all butter ... and i don't know why anyone makes cookies that don't use all butter

[KarenDW]

hope I haven't missed this idea up-thread, but have you checked the oven temperature lately?

[Lisa Shock]

I'm suspicious of any recipe that doesn't use weight to measure the ingredients. That said, were the eggs large size? And, when did you purchase the eggs? (older eggs don't leaven like super-fresh ones)

[paulraphael]

I'm suspicious of any recipe that doesn't use weight to measure the ingredients. That said, were the eggs large size? And, when did you purchase the eggs? (older eggs don't leaven like super-fresh ones)

←

weight is better than volume, but these cookie recipes just don't require much precision. You can have a lot of slop with any given ingredient and still get a decent cookie. People have been making these things for decades without scales, so i doubt the problem here is measurement. Unless she flat out made a mistake and doubled something or left something out!

[Stephanie Brim]

Eggs were fresh, butter was creamed until creamy, eggs were beaten until fluffy. I'll try just beating the eggs until incorporated the next time and see how things go. Lately I've been making butter cookies, all of which have come out exactly like I want them: chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

I agree that weight is better than volume, but I'm stuck with no scale for a couple weeks. None of the stores around here carried the one I wanted and so we're waiting until we need the other stuff we normally order from Amazon to order one. If I wanted a 5 pound capacity I could've gotten one yesterday, but I need the 11 pounder for large batches of breads and the like. We're baking about 8 dozen rolls for my daughter's birthday in a few weeks. The way I like my rolls, that equals 5 pounds of flour for each 4 dozen plus wet ingredients. At the moment I'm just hoping I have a bowl big enough.

So anyway, all this because I wanted to try the new Nestle Bittersweet Chocolatier chips. I like bittersweet chocolate, but I don't know if I like these.

[paulraphael]

Eggs were fresh, butter was creamed until creamy

by creamy, do you mean perfectly smooth (sugar completely disolved in the butter), or did the sugar still give a grainy texture to the butter?

Edited October 9, 2008 by paulraphael (log)

[djyee100]

Have you checked the expiration date on the baking soda? Maybe a problem with the leavening?

Plenty of sugar with little moisture in a cookie makes for flat, crisp cookies. The sugar can crystallize upon baking, depending on other ingredients. Was there less moisture in your cookies for any reason? Smaller size eggs? Or did you use a European-style cultured butter than contains less water than American supermarket butter?

Then, of course, too much moisture in a cookie will cause them to spread out and become flat and crisp.

Better luck next time.

ETA: I 'm guessing that the amt of sugar is the culprit in your cookies. I make the classic Tollhouse cookie recipe & it's always fine, a tender cookie with crisp edges. One-fourth cup extra of each kind of sugar doesn't sound like much, but that's an increase of 33% for each sugar, compared to the classic recipe.

Edited October 9, 2008 by djyee100 (log)

[gfron1]

My inclination is also overmixing. I stop right at combined and go no further.