But a lot of folks, if they bother to make them from scratch, just follow the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag and leave it at that. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine method, and it'll produce a fine cookie. But the heart of cooking is trying new things. So, since I like soft and chewy cookies, I follow Alton Brown's advice from his recipe, The Chewy, whenever I bake cookies.
A quick aside: yes, this is the second time I've mentioned AB in two posts. No, I am not obsessed; yes, I am a fanboy. Because he focused so much on imparting food knowledge to his viewers, his show Good Eats has taught me a lot of what I know. Don't get me wrong: I've learned plenty from other cooks, my own experimentation, and especially my family. But until I start culinary classes (hopefully this autumn!), I need a go-to resource as a baseline. For me, that's AB. Ok, record set straight. Let's move on!
Rather than go through everything step by step, I just want to talk about a few of the changes you can make when baking cookies, if you want to get them to be soft and chewy and delicious.
The Butter: melt the butter before incorporating it with the sugar. If you do, the liquid will combine with the flour to produce more gluten, which is chewy. Think about good French bread. That's gluten. Delicious, chewy gluten.
The Sugar: use a combination of brown and white sugars. The brown sugar has molasses, which grabs hold of moisture and doesn't let go. For soft cookies, moisture is a must.
The Flour: remember a second ago when I said you wanted gluten for chewy cookies? Well bread flour has more protein than regular AP flour, so it can absorb more water and thus make more gluten. Oh, and sifting the dry goods together helps them to absorb more moisture. If you have a food processor, it takes about three seconds to do. Neat, huh?
The Eggs: chocolate chip cookies call for two eggs. Well, those egg whites help to dry out the baked goods. If you remove one of the egg whites and sub in an ounce of milk, you get more moisture. Are we noticing a pattern yet?
The Batter: once your batter is made, portion it out and stick it in the fridge to chill for a few hours. If the dough is cold when it hits the oven, it won't spread out as much. As a result, the cookies stay soft and chewy in the middle, because they have more of a middle than they would if allowed to spread out.
The Extras: I enjoy playing around a bit, as I've said, so I usually add something a little extra to each batch I make. Sometimes I add Bailey's Irish Cream, or else throw some mint chips to the mix. This time, I tried something new and added about a cup each of walnuts and coconut flakes. I toasted each for a few minutes in a dry skillet over medium-low to medium heat, just to add a little color. I didn't want to over cook them (especially the nuts), since they would be spending some time in the oven as well. The coconut turned out perfectly, but I probably could have afforded to give the walnuts a minute or two more. Even still they turned out delicious, as you can clearly see:
That's all for now, but if anyone has any requests for me to make something, let me know!
Love the cookies! The coconut adds good flavor and texture. Great tips too!
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