Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies

[Khadija]

I want to bake some chocolate chip cookies. I have tried many, many recipes, some great, some not so great. In general, I think that the more I fuss over cookies, the worse they turn out. (I remember once neurotically trying to keep the ingredients cold throughout the batter making process and making the worst cookies ever.) I am a student who moves a lot, so sometimes I have more kitchen equipment and sometimes I have less. This time around, I do not have an electric mixer.

What is a good recipe to use without an electric mixer? (I don't mind a little elbow grease!) I am looking for thick, chewy cookies. I have read many rave reviews of Alton Brown's recipe, and I am thinking about trying it. However, when I skimmed through the (mostly rave) reviews on the foodnetwork website, I noticed a pattern of complaints that the cookie is bland (granted these were among the very few negative reviews). A few also said that it is greasy and more cakey than chewy. Has anyone here had these problems? Any tips to prevent problems? I really like that the Alton recipe uses melted butter (no mixer and all), but I don't want to purchase the bread flour if the cookies are going to turn out to be duds.

[jgarner53]

I love Alton Brown's chewy cookies and haven't had a problem with them being greasy or cakey. They're my favorite chocolate chip cookies. Go ahead and try them first with regular AP flour. I do mix the melted butter and sugars enough so that they come together - having a mixer does help with this, but if you go at it well with a whisk, that should work, too. Great arm workout.

My husband's friends are such fans of these cookies that they call them "crack" cookies because they're supposedly so addicting that they surely must have crack in them.

Give it a try. The chewy recipe's my favorite chocolate chip recipe to date. It does really help to get the batter good and chilled before you scoop it out. Otherwise it's too soft from the melted butter. Good luck!

[Patrick S]

I didn't find Alton's cookies chewy enough, though they certainly were not bad. I liked the Cook's Illustrated recipe better, but they are not very thick. The CI recipe uses AP flour. Also, the CI recipe makes a good peanut butter cookie if your sub peanut butter chips for chocolate chips, and add 1/2C or so of peanut butter to the batter.

[Patrick S]

I didn't label these photos, but I'm pretty sure that the top one is Alton's and the bottom one is CI's.

[chefpeon]

I love the Alton Brown recipe too.

Hands down the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've made.

What I do, is when the dough comes off the mixer, I scoop it out and let the little balls get nice and

cold in the fridge. Then all I have to do is pull them out, flatten a little, and bake.

[JFLinLA]

I love AB's chewy cookies. Yes, I make sure the melted butter and sugar are thoroughly mixed before moving on. Also, I use really, really good chocolate chips or chunks . . . and ones that are bigger than usual. I generally don't use the cookie scoop size he recommends. Those are really, really big. I make them small for fitting into the kids lunch boxes and bigger for serving to guests but, rarely with a #20 disher. Finally, and here's what I think is the really important part, I scoop the dough and freeze the little mounds before baking. Why? Well, first, it makes it really convenient to whip up a batch and then bake off when you want and how many you want. Once frozen solid, they go into zip-lock bags. Secondly, putting the frozen dough directly into the pre-heated oven (on parchment please) results in a better cookie in my opinion. They spread less, are a little cruncy outside and chewy inside. Don't change your oven temp, just maybe add a minute or so to your cooking time, though your time will adjust somewhat depending on the size of cookie you make.

Here's a batch cooling on my kitchen counter, made with Guittard Super Cookie Chips and a #40 disher (I think):

Also, a little more vanilla never hurt anybody.

Enjoy

Edited June 29, 2005 by JFLinLA (log)

[yellowmnm81]

i've made the ci and alton brown ones as well...... i liked both.. but i like the ci ones better too. alton's were good .. mine weren't quite as puffy.

but they were still good. however, on the second day, mine dried out a lot and weren't so chewy anymore. they weren't remarkably fantastic, in my memory. no one really raved about them when i brought them for friends. i really liked the ci ones though. they remained moist and chewy and baked consistenty well. looked about the same.. the alton ones were more shiny and the ci ones were more like they puffed but then dropped back in so it's more.. wrinkly. when i brought these for friends, everybody loved them.

i feel like i should give the alton brown ones another chance though.. since so many people seem to love that recipe. perhaps it was something wrong that i did?? baked too long? not sure...

[pattycakes]

I've tried every cookie in the book it seems. I've done lots of tinkering to get the texture just right. I want a crisp buttery edge surrounding a chewy cookie. I could acutally enjoy the perfect chocolate chip cookie sans the chips if the cookie dough was superiour.

While I like AB and CI-- the best I've found is from Gayles Bakery in Capitola. The Kahola Cookie is truly fab. here's my version of their cookie:

3/4 c. unbutter

1/4 margarine (I know ew...but it helps with the chew factor)

1 c packed brown sugar (I use light)

2/3 c white sugar

1egg plus 1 yolk

1 teasp vanilla

2 c flour

1 teasp baking soda

1/2 teasp salt

2/3 c oats ground fine in food processor

1 c chips

1 1/3 c toasted nuts (pre toasting them really makes a difference)

-blend butter/marg and sugar until light. Add eggs & vanilla. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients. Mix dry and wet together. Add chips and nuts.

For big bakery style cookies measure out 1/4 c dough balls and bake at 350 until done. (this is your preference--I like mine underdone ion the middle so they stay chewy)

enjoy!

pattycakes

[Wendy DeBord]

After reading a post last week (I thought it was Anne) who said that the cc cookies from baking911 were great, so I baked those. The job I'm currently baking for like soft chewie cookies (I personally don't, I prefer crunchy buttery ones) and they liked that recipe alot. I bake them from a frozen state.

Anyone else try that recipe and can compare it to the AB or CI recipe?

[Khadija]

Thanks so much for all the great advice. I got impatient last night and made the AB recipe with AP flour. They are pretty good, but not as spectacular as I was hoping for.

However, I can think of several problems with my execution of the recipe, so I will not blame AB right away. First, I did not use the bread flour, as instructed. Second, I did not have parchment paper, so I didn't use any. The cookies browned much faster than I would have liked, and as I result became quite dark pretty much everywhere except on the centre tops. Although the cookies are still fairly chewy (with a slightly crisp exterior), I think the browning affected the taste. I was hoping for a cookie that really tastes like butter. This one doesn't. I did not use top of the line butter, but I used what I think is pretty decent butter, so I don't think it was the butter (the batter tasted very buttery).

Here are some things I did, which I was wondering about:

1. I creamed the butter and sugars together by hand until the mixture became very pale. I wonder if in this process I incorporated too much air into the mixture. Does this make a difference? I know that I'm trying to dissolve the sugar into the butter, but I figure I also don't want a lot of air in the cookie. In any case, the end result is fairly chewy. It could be chewier, but I am blaming that on the lack of bread flour.

2. I chilled the dough in the fridge after preparing, then I scooped it out into mounds and put these into the freezer until semi-frozen. I baked the cookies from semi frozen. I remember once baking the dough from frozen and having problems. The outsides of the cookies melted while the insides were still frozen. I think I didn't flatten them that time, so that could have been the problem. I flattened a little bit this time, and they seemed to cook fairly evenly, but there was the issue of the browning. Maybe this is simply a problem with my 1970s oven and lack of parchment paper.

3. I don't have an ice-cream scoop, so I used a small chinese soup spoon. When the mounds were semi-frozen, I shaped them a little bit. I wonder if this packed in the dough too much.

4. I used buttermilk instead of regular milk. This was purely an experiment. I don't know if it affected the taste either way, because the cookies are too dark. Does anyone know what the milk is supposed to do?

As soon as these cookies are gone (my partner really likes them, too brown or not), it's back to the drawing board for me. I will definitely try the CI recipe, although I am not ready to give up on this one yet.

[Khadija]

Oh, yes. I for the white sugar component of the dough, I used an organic sugar put out by a Canadian label called "President's Choice." The package claims that the sugar has the same taste and dissolving qualities of regular granulated sugar. Does anyone know anything about this?

[Khadija]

Pattycakes, I am a big fan of chocolate chip cookies with blended oatmeal in them. I will try your recipe as soon as I nail down a traditional chewy one, which I can make for a friend who thinks that anything with oatmeal in it is "health food." I do notice that a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes call for some margarine, and for the purposes of texture, it makes sense.

[browniebaker]

I followed the Alton Brown recipe exactly, bread flour and all, and I was not impressed by the level of chewiness. The cookies were not as chewy as promised. My family all said the cookies were nothing special. The cookies were a lot like the commercially sold David's Cookies, with a thin crispy edge, soft and gooey center, slightly greasy mouth-feel, and flat profile. I love David's Cookies, but I wanted a chewy cookie.

I then tried the Cooks' Illustrated cookies and liked them better. However, they still were not as chewy as I wanted.

So I made some modifications and got an extremely chewy cookie that I am happy with: more dark-brown sugar (although you could use light-brown sugar if you wanted less molasses flavor) and more flour (all-purpose).

BIG FAT CHEWS

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed dark-brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (using dip-and-sweep method of measuring)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 to 1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Place oven-rack at center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together butter, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until blended. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide dough into 16 balls of equal size. Place on 15-x-18-inch aluminum cookie-sheet lined with non-stick, silicone, baking mat. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes , or just until cookies are lightly golden, edges start to harden, and centers are still soft and puffed. For chewy cookies that are not so soft as to fall apart, take care not to underbake. Remove from oven. Slide baking mat, together with cookies, off cookie-sheet and onto flat surface. Cool on baking mat to room temperature. Cookies are chewiest about 24 hours after baking. Makes 16 three-inch cookies.

Of course, I'm always playing with my chocolate-chip cookie recipe (and other recipes). In another month, I might have made more modifications. The perfect chocolate-chip cookie seems to be a Holy Grail of home-baking.

Edited June 29, 2005 by browniebaker (log)

[Khadija]

Browniebaker, I notice that your recipe calls for mixing the butter, sugars, and eggs together all at once. Does this mean that you don't cream the butter and sugar together before adding the eggs? Again, I am wondering if the creaming process incorporates too much air into the dough? I did find that the AB cookies were less dense than I would have liked, but thought that this was because of the AP flour (as opposed to bread flour).

[browniebaker]

Khadija, the butter is specified to be in melted form (see list of ingredients), and there is no creaming. I have found that melted, uncreamed butter to produces a denser, chewier cookie (and brownie). It is, as you say, a question of how much air you want to incorporate into the dough.

Bread flour does contribute to chewiness because of a higher gluten level than AP flour, but to a noticeable degree only if you stir it or knead it enough to develop the gluten. I have tried bread flour and AP flour using the same cookie recipe and found no noticeable difference because the recipe did not call for working the dough much.

Edited June 29, 2005 by browniebaker (log)

[chefpeon]

Well, your browning problem was definitely due to your buttermilk. It reacted with the soda big time!

Use regular milk and you won't have the browning problem!

Whenever I give people the AB recipe, I always tell them to follow the instructions EXACTLY.

No tweaking! No substituting! I think, that as is, it's quite spectacular.

[chefpeon]

After reading a post last week (I thought it was Anne) who said that the cc cookies from baking911 were great, so I baked those. The job I'm currently baking for like soft chewie cookies (I personally don't, I prefer crunchy buttery ones) and they liked that recipe alot. I bake them from a frozen state.

Anyone else try that recipe and can compare it to the AB or CI recipe?

I'm pretty sure that the baking911 recipe and the AB recipe are one in the same. A while ago I compared them, and I think that's the conclusion I made.

Before I switched to AB, my favorite recipe was from Nancy Baggett's International Cookie Book. It used processed oatmeal too. I loved the texture of them. They are still top of my list, but I found those particular cookies seemed to taste stale quicker, which is why AB is my fav.

Edited June 29, 2005 by chefpeon (log)

[Khadija]

Thanks, chefpeon. I don't really know why I added the buttermilk in the first place, and I had no idea why I was having that browning problem. I will defnitely try making the AB recipe again, and I will follow the instructions exactly. As you can probably tell, I tend to lack the precision of a real baker.

I just realised something. A couple of years ago, I made the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. I had decided I wanted to whip up a batch in a hurry for a camping trip, and a googled something like "best chocolate chip cookie recipe." I just tried to find that recipe, and I realised it is the same as one posted here on recipegullet. And, as it turns out, the recipe is an adaptation of the CI recipe. So, the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made are, more or less, the CI cookies. However, I'm still going to give the AB recipe another shot. (This time I'll be more careful.) Thanks a lot, everyone. All the comments have helped a lot.

[jgarner53]

Khadija, it does sound like you might have creamed the butter and sugars together too much. I stop just when they're integrated and there's no more separate layer of fat.

[onehsancare]

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (using dip-and-sweep method of measuring)

←

My mother, Girl Scouts, and home ec did a fantastic job of getting into my head the belief that NEVER should I dip and sweep. I'm not yet ready to switch to weighing flour, but I'm really resisting dipping and sweeping.

OCD? maybe.

Words of wisdom? Encouragement? Scorn?

[Patrick S]

There's nothing wrong with dip-and-sweep. I think most recipes assume that cups will be meaured that way, so if you spoon your flour into the cup, you could end up using too little flour.

pattycakes, I tried your recipe tonight, and it turned out pretty chewy. I got about two dozen 50 gram cookies.

[jayhay]

There's nothing wrong with dip-and-sweep. I think most recipes assume that cups will be meaured that way, so if you spoon your flour into the cup, you could end up using too little flour.

←

Are you sure about that? I've always been lead to believe you should spoon lightly into the cup, then level off.

One more reason to start weighing, me thinks....

[CanadianBakin']

There's nothing wrong with dip-and-sweep. I think most recipes assume that cups will be meaured that way, so if you spoon your flour into the cup, you could end up using too little flour.

←

Are you sure about that? I've always been lead to believe you should spoon lightly into the cup, then level off.

One more reason to start weighing, me thinks....

←

Like you, I was always taught to spoon and level and now I weigh but that still doesn't solve all your flour problems. Some bakers using 4-1/2 oz/cup, some use 5 oz/cup and they don't usually specify.

[Patrick S]

There's nothing wrong with dip-and-sweep. I think most recipes assume that cups will be meaured that way, so if you spoon your flour into the cup, you could end up using too little flour.

←

Are you sure about that? I've always been lead to believe you should spoon lightly into the cup, then level off.

←

Doh!

I'd really only assumed that most recipes assume dip and sweep. I really can't purport to speak about 'most recipes,' because most of them just don't specify. So let me pull a few books of the shelf at random and see what they say . . . I pull out 'Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme', and it has 1C AP flour as 140 grams, which is closer to the dip and sweep weight (145grams) than the spooned weight (121 grams), as listed by Berenbaum in her 'Cake Bible.' I pull another book from my shelf, the 'Secrets of Baking,' and Yard says that "when measuring flour, us the dip and sweep method . . . the same goes fo powdered sugar" (p. 6). Third book I pull out is an old Southern Living cookbook, and it says to spoon the flour in.

[Sarah Phillips]

After reading a post last week (I thought it was Anne) who said that the cc cookies from baking911 were great, so I baked those. The job I'm currently baking for like soft chewie cookies (I personally don't, I prefer crunchy buttery ones) and they liked that recipe alot. I bake them from a frozen state.

Anyone else try that recipe and can compare it to the AB or CI recipe?

I'm pretty sure that the baking911 recipe and the AB recipe are one in the same. A while ago I compared them, and I think that's the conclusion I made.

←

The recipe posted on baking911.com is from Alton Brown. Look at the attribution to AB at the bottom of the page.... "Recipes by Alton Brown, tvfood.com". It's been there as long as the recipe has been posted on the website, which is awhile.... http://www.baking911.com/recipes/cookies/chocchip_3ways.htm It's also posted here http://www.baking911.com/recipes/cookies/c..._chip_chewy.htm "Recipe by Alton Brown". Is there a recipe that doesn't credit him in error? Let me know ~ The sources of all recipes posted on the site are placed with each recipe either at the top or very end...

Edited June 30, 2005 by Sarah Phillips (log)