Chewy cookies that don't freeze.

[percival]

I want to make a chewy cookie that doesn't freeze at 32 Fahrenheit.

What can I add or sub into standard cookie dough to make this happen?

Glucose, gums, glycerine, etc... just throwing out ideas. I'm sure someone out there has attempted and/or succeeded in this.

[pastrygirl]

Sugar, maybe some invert sugar so they don't get too sweet. Alcohol. Maybe a more liquid fat, oil instead of butter. Will oil freeze solid?

[nolnacs]

In my experience, most cooking oils would at least start congealing at 32 F, but I don't think that they would be frozen solid at that high of a temperature.

[baroness]

King Arthur Flour has several recipes HERE on their website for ice cream sandwich cookies. Perhaps they will give you a starting point.

[scott123]

First of all, I've frozen regular chocolate chip cookies in the past and eaten them straight from the freezer and they weren't really frozen solid. I don't think the measures you take need to be too drastic to obtain a softer product.

The smaller the molecule, the better it is at depressing the freezing point. Monosaccharides (glucose, fructose) are superior in this regard to disaccharides. Invert sugar isn't completely inverted. In order to maximize the freezing point depression in your cookies, you should invert the sugars completely and replace the sugar in the recipe with equal parts glucose and fructose (by weight, since the crystal sizes vary).

You can create a chewier end product with slightly more freezing point depression by subbing some of the fructose with glucose. Just remember to use about twice as much glucose as it's half as sweet.

The other adjustment I'd make would be to slightly increase the salt. The salt will help with freezing point depression, and, since taste buds have problems detecting flavors of cold/frozen foods, the salt should help in this regard.

The one area that's going to prove especially difficult is the chocolate chips. There's really very little that you can do to prevent them from tasting waxy and flavorless when frozen. You could try making something like a glucose/fructose and/or alcohol enhanced ganache and use that for chips, but I'm not really sure how it's going to bake. Ice cream manufacturers seem to have cracked the frozen yet flavorful chocolate code (such as Ben and Jerry's coffee heath bar crunch), but that's some seriously daunting chemistry there.

Edited September 25, 2010 by scott123 (log)

[percival]

Thanks for the info! It seems King Arthur uses a proprietary modified starch called Signature Secrets® which depresses the freezing point. It's normally used as a thickener that does not lump, does not require being pre-slurried, and freezes and thaws without separating. And researching smaller molecules, I found this great scientific article: Effects on Freezing Points of Carbohydrates Commonly Used in Frozen Desserts.

Going to use that as a starting point -- galactose, fructose, glucose. Once I figure out the right cookie dough texture, then I'll worry about the ingredients. Going to experiment with hydrolyzing my own lactose, since I can't pick up galactose at the corner store.

[paulraphael]

I'd try substituting alternative sugars. Dextrose (glucose powder) can substitute for a portion of the table sugar, as can trimoline (invert syrup). Both will supress the freezing point much more than sucrose (table sugar). Trimoline will also improve shelf life and may actually increase chewiness. You'll probably have to play with proportions and quantities; dextrose is is less sweet than table sugar, and trimoline is slightly less sweet (by weight).

I don't think any cookie dough will freeze at 32F. They all get stiff because the butter hardens, and maybe a small percentage of the water freezes. I suspect having a smaller quantity of butter, or substituting liquid oil (especially one high in polyunsaturated fat) for some of it, would help ... but I hate to advise this because the cookies won't taste as good.

If this is for an ice cream sandwich, you should aim for good texture around 10 to 15F ... this is the range where properly made ice cream is the best texture for eating.

Edited September 27, 2010 by paulraphael (log)

[chiantiglace]

Sugar, maybe some invert sugar so they don't get too sweet. Alcohol. Maybe a more liquid fat, oil instead of butter. Will oil freeze solid?

invert sugar is sweeter than sugar.

....use corn syrup....

[paulraphael]

invert sugar is sweeter than sugar.

....use corn syrup....

It's sweeter if you you control for the water content. But if you're just comparing trimoline to sucrose, gram to gram, sucrose will be slightly sweeter. Corn syrup or glucose syrup will be much less sweet.

[chiantiglace]

invert sugar is sweeter than sugar.

....use corn syrup....

It's sweeter if you you control for the water content. But if you're just comparing trimoline to sucrose, gram to gram, sucrose will be slightly sweeter. Corn syrup or glucose syrup will be much less sweet.

Thats not true, gram to gram invert sugar will always be sweeter than sucrose because being that invert sugar is the disaccharide molecules broken down to monosaccharide, the immediate availability of raw fructose on your tongue creates a much sweeter sensation. Thats basically the same reason sucralose is so much sweeter, because the particles break down on the tongue so much faster.

Obviously the more you break down glucose syrup (DE) the sweeter it is as well, correct? So replacing a little sugar with high fructose corn syrup will give the desired sweetness and the softness, adding glucose will reduce the sweetness, and from what I gather thats not what percival wants.

Edited October 2, 2010 by chiantiglace (log)