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Chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe


dknywbg

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I'm a huge fan of the choc chip cookies made by City Bakery in NYC--they're rich and chewy and crispy and almost toffee-like, studded with big ol' shards of chocolate. I've got a recipe that actually tastes pretty close, but I have two problems:

1. The cookies come out flat and crispy, which, while fine in its own way, is not what I'm trying for

2. They're fairly greasy-feeling, with much more butter left on the fingers than CB's version.

Today I tried chilling the dough--rolling it into a cookie schlong and slicing instead of scooping--but it only made them crispier.

Here's the recipe I'm playing with. Any suggestions would be VERY much appreciated!

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ t. baking soda

½ t. salt

¼ pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces

½ cup sugar

¾ cup tightly packed light brown sugar

1 ½ t. pure vanilla extract

1 large egg, at room temperature

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

1) Preheat oven to 350. Adjust racks to lower and upper thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.

2) Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

3) Using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle. Add the sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Cream on medium speed until it is smooth and lump free, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

4) Add the egg and beat on low speed for 15 seconds, or until fully incorporated. Do not overbeat. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

5) On low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the chocolate chunks and mix until they are just incorporated. If using a hand mixer, use a wooden spoon to stir them in.

6) Spoon the dough using a cookie scooper 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.

7) Bake for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown around the edges, swapping placement and turning the sheets front to back halfway through the baking.

8) Remove from the oven and carefully slide the parchment or Silpats directly onto a work surface. Let cool until set, then slide cookies onto rack to cool fully.

thoughts on food, writing, and everything else: Words to Eat By

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What I want to know is,

if you're going to cream the butter anyway, why does the recipe say to cut it into 1/2 inch pieces?

:wacko::wacko::wacko:

I also believe the act of creaming the butter BEFORE you add your sugars, and THEN creaming it even more AFTER you add your sugars is most certainly adding to your thin and crispy problem.

A little too much creaming going on there.

My suggestion:

try your recipe again, but just cream your butter and sugars together til smooth, not fluffy. Don't bother creaming the butter first. Just throw 'em all in there, and cream on medium til smooth.

And you really don't need to cut your butter into 1/2 inch pieces.....that's just an unnecessary extra step.

My chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I think is the BEST EVER (really), uses melted butter also.

It also has bread flour and milk in it. How do ya like them apples?

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Thanks for the quick responses, everyone!

Hmm chefpeon, that's a good point about the double-creaming, at least as far as the greasiness goes. I'll try your cream-it-all-at-once suggestion next time, and if that doesn't work I'll definitely try melting the butter. Is your recipe by any chance the same as ellencho's Alton Brown one? It's got melted butter, bread flour, & milk too. And is it really chewy, or chewy-inside & crispy-outside? Cuz the latter's what I'm hoping for...

Cherimoya, I've already played with the sugar ratio--the original recipe was equal. I wasn't sure how much further I could push it!

thoughts on food, writing, and everything else: Words to Eat By

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I echo ellencho on this - Alton's chewy recipe is the best. As a matter of fact they are baking right now in the oven as I type this. :smile:

Edited by lemon curd (log)

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I echo ellencho on this - Alton's chewy recipe is the best. As a matter of fact they are baking right now in the oven as I type this. :smile:

I triple echo the recommendation for AB's chewy recipe. Two suggestions. One, get really big chocolate chips or chunks. I personally like the Guittard super cookie chips but can't always find them. Second (and I really think this is key), after you scoop your dough, place the mounds on parchment on a baking sheet. Once frozen you can pop them in a zip bag for baking later. Whenever you do bake, this way your dough is really cold. This means, especially if your oven is not enough, they will set up before they have too much chance to spread. Ideally, for me, you want them with a slighy crispy outside and chewy on the inside.

So long and thanks for all the fish.
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I learned a lot about cookie doughs when I used to make them in massive amounts. Use cold butter and cream ON LOW SPEED. This will take awhile. The butter/sugar mixture will hold on to the flour very differently. It will spread out much less. Unless you are looking for a thin flat cookie- keep your butter cold.

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Woo hoo! Success! I just baked a batch and they're EXACTLY what I was looking for. Chewy and crispy and thick and golden brown. If I knew how to post pictures, I would. (I took a bunch for my blog, so if you're curious click on the link in my signature later on today). Thank you all soooo much. I made a couple of changes, using various suggestions:

1. Creamed the butter and sugars together at the beginning, eliminating the initial creaming of the butter alone (chefpeon's)

2. Did all mixing on low speed, rather than medium (KarenS's)

3. Refrigerated dough (in bowl) before baking (JFLinLA's, sorta)

Here's the final recipe:

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ t. baking soda

½ t. salt

¼ pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

½ cup sugar

¾ cup tightly packed light brown sugar

1 ½ t. vanilla extract

1 large egg, at room temperature, lightly beaten

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (I just used half a 12-oz bag of bittersweet Ghiardelli chocolate chips)

1) Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

2) Using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugars on low speed until it is smooth and lump free, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

3) Add the vanilla and egg and beat on low speed for 15 seconds, or until fully incorporated. Do not overbeat. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.

4) On low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the chocolate chunks and mix until they are just incorporated. If using a hand mixer, use a wooden spoon to stir them in. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour.

5) Preheat oven to 350. Adjust racks to lower and upper thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Spoon the dough using a cookie scooper 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. (makes about 22 3-inch round cookies)

6) Bake for 11-13 minutes [it’s 13 in my oven] or until golden brown around the edges, turning the sheets front to back and switching racks halfway through.

Remove the sheet from the oven and carefully slide the parchment or Silpats directly onto a work surface. When cookies are set, remove them to a cooling rack. Wait at least 5 minutes before serving or 20 minutes before storing in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

thoughts on food, writing, and everything else: Words to Eat By

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  • 2 years later...
Woo hoo! Success! I just baked a batch and they're EXACTLY what I was looking for. Chewy and crispy and thick and golden brown.

Okay, WOW! I just made the whole batch of cookies, and these are SO good! I can't figure out what it is about the recipe that makes them so incredible. I mean, the recipe basically looks just like Tollhouse cut in half. Mine is not to question, but to scarf down the rest.

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It's been a long time since I've made regular chocolate chip cookies (until fairly recently I was baking without eggs do to one kiddos food allergies), and the recipe I used made chewy, but not overly thick cookies. Looking at the recipe now, they use brown sugar and honey instead of the typical brown sugar/white sugar combination. Something I noticed also helps make for thick cookies is to substitute shortening for half the amount of butter/margarine.

Cheryl

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  • 2 weeks later...

I find whenever I make cookies (whichever type, including chocolate chip) that are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside... they are delightful on the day of baking, but by the next day the crisp exterior has either disappeared or degenerated into a crusty hard edge.

How to preserve that cursty outside and chewy interior beyond the first day?

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Looking at the recipe now, they use brown sugar and honey instead of the typical brown sugar/white sugar combination.

OK.....I'm not sure which recipe you're talking about, but I'm talking about the one at the very beginning of this thread. There is no honey in that one.

I think the recipe is just like Tollhouse recipe, except that a cup of sugar was added to it, and then the recipe was halved.

How to preserve that cursty outside and chewy interior beyond the first day?

That's why it's good that it's a half recipe - they get eaten faster. :raz:

Also, it's important to use bittersweet chocolate. If you use semi-sweet, the cookies will be too sweet.

I LOVE this recipe and have it memorized already.

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I think the recipe is just like Tollhouse recipe, except that a cup of sugar was added to it, and then the recipe was halved. 

Actually, the Tollhouse recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of flour. If you halved that, it would be 1 1/8 (or 1 cup + 2 tbsp) of flour. This recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of flour. The amount of flour makes a huge difference in the texture of the cookie in my opinion. Not saying either recipe is better, just different.

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  • 3 months later...

I tried making this cookie with chopped up Halloween candy the other day (Hershey bars & Butterfingers). The result was okay...texture was good, but it was all a little too sickly sweet. Dark chocolate is best for this recipe!

What is your favorite kind of nut to put in cookies? I like walnuts. Pecans are good, too, but a little on the sweet side. Has anyone tried chopped almonds? What else?

I brought this cookie (with dark chocolate chunks & chopped pecans) to a potluck and it was a hit. I got many requests for the recipe.

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  • 4 months later...
The amount of flour makes a huge difference in the texture of the cookie in my opinion.  Not saying either recipe is better, just different.

Thanks, shaloop.

Walnuts make the best nuts for this, I've found. Any other nut makes it too sweet.

I wanted to make this cookie again tonight, but couldn't find my notebook, and couldn't find the bookmark, so allllll I had to do was go to Google and type: best chocolate chip cookie recipe blog and it came up number one! I got a kick out of that!

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