Reinventing the wheel

A while back I had the genius idea that I was going to start a baking blog, mostly because the small bubble I live in wasn’t a great outlet for sharing and testing ideas.  I could make things here at the house and they’d pretty much sit there, untouched…or conversely, I’d eat it all.  A few times I’d make things and take it into work to share, but when you work at a bakery that doesn’t go over too well. 

So, I decided I’d start a blog as a way to share things, but it pretty much fell by the wayside when I’d plan out what my first post(s) would be and then make something and it did not turn out like I wanted.  This happened a few times, and then I got busy at work and I discovered what a social life was, and then I decided I wanted to open a bakery.  That last one being the inspiration to restart my attempt at this, because I need to develop recipes for items I would sell and this is a great way to document it (and possibly get feedback).

You might be wondering what’s up with the name.  Allow me to explain by introducing you to four of the best taste testers you could ask for –

Yup.  I can’t count the number of times I have had finished something and turned my back for a minute, only to hear the clash of a pan hitting the floor as one of dogs had decided to try out something.  So, the name was inspired by them.

So, about that whole documenting ideas…

Let’s talk about cookies, particularly the quintessential one.  Chocolate chip.  This particular cookie can be the most intimidating one, as you ask people about it and you’ll hear their mother or grandmother made the best one ever.  It’s a hard thing to live up to.  How do you deal with that?   

For me, the perfect chocolate chip cookie should be crispy on the outside, but soft, chewy and buttery on the inside and it should never be cakey.  This past fall I traveled up to the northeast to visit my sisters and spent a day in NYC and visited Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center and tried their chocolate chip cookie (along with a ton of other things).  It was the best tasting chocolate chip cookie I had ever had.  It wasn’t because they use expensive chocolate like valrhona, instead what stood out to me was this rich, caramel, almost nutty note to it.  I spent the next fifteen minutes analyzing what that could be.  Did they add coffee to it and it was somehow playing off the chocolate to give that effect?  It wasn’t until I got home and looked up the recipe and discovered that they added blackstrap molasses and combined with the brown sugar is what gave it that caramelly depth.

So, in my attempt to find a suitable chocolate chip cookie recipe, I first looked up random recipes on the net and didn’t have much luck.  I decided to consult the recipes of a baking god you probably don’t know…Maida Heatter.  Turns out her chocolate chip cookie is a tweaked version of the Tollhouse version, so I figured it’s a good place to start. 

I gathered all the ingredients and had them ready to go.  You might notice the bottle of molasses, I decided that I would add that to give the cookies that added depth I enjoyed so much months ago.  I also use vanilla paste for most baking, exceptions would be buttercream most of the time.  If you're not familiar with vanilla paste, it's syrup like and has a sweetness to it.  It also contains the vanilla seeds, so whatever you make has the small flecks of vanilla seeds.

Maida's recipe said to cream the butter alone, then add the eggs and then the sugar.  I decided to go with a more traditional route and cream the butter and sugars at the start and then add the remaining ingredients in the traditional cookie order.

 

The recipe, in its different versions, either calls for chilling the dough after scooping or going directly into the oven.  I opted for the later.

The cookies were baked for 10-12 minutes roughly, and removed when the edges were a nice brown.  This typically gives the cookies the crunchy outside and soft, chewy inside.  Let them cool and enjoy.

You can see the cookies have a darker color to them due to the molasses.  I think in the future though, I'll try chilling them before baking, that way they don't spread as much and end up a bit thicker.  They are delicious either way though, I am sure.

Recipe:

8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 tsp. salt 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

2 1/4 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. (2 cups) semisweet chocolate morsels (16 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate bars cut into pieces in modified recipe)

Preheat the oven to 375. Cut parchment paper to fit cookie sheets.

Cream the butter in a mixer. Add the salt, vanilla and both sugars and beat well. Add the eggs and eat well. Lower the speed of the mixer and about half of the flour and beat only until incorporated. Add baking soda the dough. Add the remaining flour and beat only to mix. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the chocolate and the nuts.

There are various methods for forming the dough. You can simply drop the batter from a teaspoon or you can freeze the dough overnight.  Place the dough 2 inches apart on the paper and slightly flatten the top with a spoon or your fingertips.

Bake for about 12 minutes until the cookies have browned all over. If using only one cookie sheet, use the upper rack. If using two sheets, reverse them from top to bottom half-way through the baking time.

Let the cookies cool for a few seconds before transferring them to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.