As much as I love to cook and bake, there is one kitchen staple that I have not mastered. In fact, it is one staple that I haven't even attempted much. Chocolate Chip Cookies. I think all serious bakers should have a go-to, delicious, chocolate chip recipe in their arsenal--one that is tried and true. And sadly, I'm not even close to being there.
For the record, this post isn't totally out of the blue. I whipped up a batch of cookies last night to use up an egg yolk I had in the fridge, and the outcome left much to be desired. Which is a shame, because a good chocolate chip cookie is just So. Delicious. And always hits the spot. I realized last night just how far off the mark these cookies were, and my disappointment fueled a desire to find/create MY perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Now, I know everyone has different ideas about what makes the "perfect" chocolate chip cookie, which is why this is the quest for "my" perfect cookie, not "the" perfect cookie. To me, the best chocolate chip cookie has a nice, even, lightly browned color, just a little bit of crispiness on the outside, and thick, gooey, soft, melted-chocolate-ness in the middle. The cookies I made? Wafer-thin (except for the "humps" of chocolate chips), and with a noticeable crunch throughout. Maybe someone's idea of perfection, but definitely not mine.
Thankfully, I have tried my hand at enough recipes that I'm pretty sure I know precisely what I didn't like about this one. For starters, rather than creaming the butter and sugar, this recipe called for melting the butter and then mixing it with the sugars. While I was initially excited about this step because I hate creaming butter and sugar (someone please buy me a KitchenAid Stand Mixer please!), the melted butter definitely created a runnier dough than I've seen in other cookies. Additionally, this recipe calls to bake the cookies on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, which I know also encourages the dough to spread out as it bakes. The runny dough and prepared cookie sheet spelled disaster for the thickness of these poor cookies.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had both batches in the oven that I had the brilliant idea to bake/prepare the same batch of cookie dough a few different ways to see which I like best. Because I'm really wishing I had tried some of this dough without parchment paper to see if that would have helped alleviate the thinness. Of course, they might have gotten really stuck to the pan that way, but without trying, I don't know.
So I've concocted a plan (restlessness at night will do that to a person). I'm going to perfect chocolate chip cookies this summer. Because gosh darn it, when I have kids, I hope all their friends to want to come to my house after school because I make the best chocolate chip cookies. I've already got a few variations in mind that I'm excited to try. For starters, I read that a key step in making chocolate chip cookies is refrigerating the dough for 36 hours. Now, I don't normally see this step in recipes, so I'm not to certain about it. But it'll be easiest enough to test. I've also see people sprinkle a little bit of coarse salt on their cookies just before baking, and I'm intrigued by this. I've had a salted chocolate cake before and it was delicious, so I'm thinking the same would be true for cookies. And of course, I'm going to change up the surface on which I bake the cookies. One thing I'm not going to try again? Using melted butter. I'll grin and bear it through creaming the butter.
Friends in the area beware! I might be needing to find people to help taste test--and then take cookies home with them! Because even though I may have extra time to work out in the summer, I certainly don't need to fuel myself with sweets.
PS: One slightly unrelated discovery that I made last night? My stomach does not enjoy raw dough as much as it used to. I filled two sheets with cookies and had enough dough left to make probably six or seven more, but it was getting late and I didn't feel like baking another half-pan, so I decided to just eat the rest (with a little help from Darrell). I'm pretty sure most of my restlessness last night can be attributed to that. Lesson learned.
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