Bouchon Nutter Butter cookies

[sygyzy]

Last night I made a large batch of Bouchon's nutter butter recipe. I think there's a problem with the recipe itself. I won't post which one I used since every result in the Google is identical. I believe this to be the official recipe that Bouchon provided the newspapers/magazines and not some guesswork by fans.

I have been to Bouchon a few times and tried most of their stuff but not the Nutter Butters. The issue I had/am having is the cookies are so soft. They are impossible to work with out of the oven (understandable) but even after cooling, they are too weak to support themselves. If I took a cookie and held it with one hand in the middle, it would break in the middle the other half would fall off.

There's a pound of butter in the cookie. Plus peanut butter and 2 eggs that act as wet goods. The only omission I made was leaving out a mere 1/3 cup of peanuts (I ran out). I don't think that would have mattered much. The dough was extremely soft, nothing like a chocolate chip cookie dough for example. It's no wonder these things are super soft.

The taste is perfect and so is the texture. But with the cookies so soft, they really seem "off." I was told the real cookies are stiff, perhaps too stiff. I don't know about them but these certainly seem too soft.

Any suggestions? Could I simply boost the flour or oats content? Has anyone else made these?

[prasantrin]

I haven't made them, but may I ask what kind of peanut butter you used? You'll have a different result if using natural when regular commercial is called for, and vice versa, but I can't remember off-hand how the result will differ (I think natural gives a drier product??).

[sygyzy]

Hi, I used regular store bought name brand creamy PB. I think the brand was Skippy, which according to a cookie blog I read is what Bouchon recommends. I purposely didn't go for anything unusual (organic, natural, generic, chunky, etc). Just standard peanut butter.

[Chioco]

Hi Sygyzy,

I'm so excited that a recipe exists, and I can't wait to try it, even though I'm sorry you're having problems with it. I have never personally tried the Bouchon recipe, but I remember them being incredibly soft (and looking at the NYTimes recipe, I think I know why!! ). I don't think that they're meant to be eaten out of hand (they're famously enormous and sandwiched with obscene amounts of cream ), which might explain the structural issues.

[tan319]

Seems like there's too much butter in there.

Maybe over creamed?

Also I would try resting the dough for a good 30 minutes?

BTW, I was amazed to see how much Bouchon & Ad Hoc product/mixes/etc. there was in Williams Sonoma yesterday....

[sygyzy]

Overcreamed? I thought the rule of thumb was most people don't cream enough and only good can come from it. I'll admit I don't know enough science behind baking. Let me consult McGee and BakeWise

[prasantrin]

I think cookies usually work best with less creaming.

Is it possible your butter was too warm? The rest tan319 suggested mmay help that, especially if you put it in the fridge for part of that time.

[sygyzy]

According to BakeWise, the reason cookies spread too much is because of moisture, low gluten production etc. When you cream, you wrap the flour granules in fat so they can't react with water to create gluten. One way we can get around this is to add a little bit of water to the flour and mix that up (leave it clumpy) then mix in the other ingredients. I don't like this idea since I have never seen anyone add water (straight up) to a cookie recipe. Another thing that keeps cookies soft is honey which is hydroscopic, but I didn't use it in this recipe.

I can understand wanting to keep dough chilled (so fat stiffens) for pastry/puff pastry since you want slow release of the fat in the oven. But I don't understand how it matters in cookies. Is it to give time for the other ingredients (which ones? egg proteins?) to set. Once the cookies are in a 350F oven for a few minutes, won't the butter be all melted anyway?

[prasantrin]

In part repeating what you wrote about wrapping flour granules in fat, but adding some new information

First, he said, he lets the dough rest for 36 hours before baking.

Asked why, he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “They just taste better.”

“Oh, that Maury’s a sly one,” said Shirley O. Corriher, author of “CookWise” (William Morrow, 1997), a book about science in the kitchen. “What he’s doing is brilliant. He’s allowing the dough and other ingredients to fully soak up the liquid — in this case, the eggs — in order to get a drier and firmer dough, which bakes to a better consistency.”

A long hydration time is important because eggs, unlike, say, water, are gelatinous and slow-moving, she said. Making matters worse, the butter coats the flour, acting, she said, “like border patrol guards,” preventing the liquid from getting through to the dry ingredients. The extra time in the fridge dispatches that problem. Like the Warm Rule, hydration — from overnight, in Mr. Poussot’s case, to up to a few days for Mr. Torres — was a tactic shared by nearly every baker interviewed.

That doesn't address the melting butter thing, but to that I would ask another question, if you put cold butter in a 350F oven, will it melt at the same rate as room temperature butter? Or as butter held at 30C?

[CKatCook]

In my very, very in experienced opinon, everytime I had a recipe come up way too soft like that I just added more flour the next time to get a stiffer dough. (((shrug)) I don't know what it would do in this recipe, but it worked for me in the past.

[tan319]

Reducing the butter/adding more flour.

I bake cookies right out of the fridge/maybe 5 min in rm temp frequently, no biggie.

I'll have to look at the Ad Hoc (?) book and see what the recipe is about,

From your earlierposts, it sounded like a "Sable" type of cookie.

Rest the dough overnight in the fridge.

It will benefit.

[sygyzy]

Tan - I will rest the dough overnight per your instructions on my next match (who knows when). You will not find the recipe in the Ad Hoc book. Or the Bouchon book. But just google it and you'll find it with no problems.

[tan319]

I looked at some of those blogs that came up with pics as well as the NYT recipe.

I would cream the sugars with the butter till incorporated then add p-nut butter/flour mix ( not sifted) etc.

The NYT recipe says to rest the dough, rest it overnight, can't hurt.

It wouldn't hurt to make sure your oven is calibrated too.

If you have a probe type thermometer test for that temp.

I'm kind of wary of that stuff as I just finished a stint at a shop that only had radiant ovens and the temps were off. After enough bitching a tech came in and it was off by close to 60 degrees under 350.

The other oven was off by close to 100 over 350.

I had to double pan chocolate chip cookie's ( high fat) as well as adjust the temp.

I noticed the NYT recipe advised a good resting time as well before moving.

It looks like a normal p nut butter cooking

Last thought.

Not many eggs in there?

Best of luck!

[sygyzy]

The resting time they noted, IIRC, was just a standard time for cookies. These are so soft, you need to rest them at least 15 mins before even attempting a move to a cooling rack, then it should stay on there some more. It's not an issue with moving, it's the recipe or my prep of the recipe. I will let things rest overnight. And I'll check out my oven temp too.

[gwendolyn]

After portioning out the dough, put the whole pan in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. It will make all the difference, truly. Also, make sure the cookies have fully set before transferring them.

[christinajun]

My girlfriend and I just took a trip to Napa and ate at all of TK's restaurants...including Bouchon Bakery every morning! I must say, their Nutter Butter cookies are to die for! I'm sad to hear that you're having so many problems with it...

I would agree with chilling and resting the dough for baking for optimal results. We have found at the restaurant that most of our cookie doughs really benefit from this, being even better when baked 2-3 days after the dough has been made.

As for the butter,I think you may be over-creaming it as well...

One of the most common mistakes in creaming butter and sugar (or any fat and sugar) is to either over-cream or under-cream, creaming too fast, or creaming with fat that is too warm or cold. I'm not at home to look in my books to give you the details and science behind it, but typically the more you cream butter and sugar, the more the cookies will spread and lose structure. I would try to follow the directions specifically, and cream on medium speed for 4 minutes.

[sugarseattle]

yum! we already have fabulous peanut butter cookies, but after reading this I'm tempted to switch!

I also agree on the resting...and if the dough isn't sufficiently stiff after a good rest in the fridgy, a little more flour will help, but add so sparingly. We often have to tweak our flour amounts as the water content in flour does vary throughout the year.