Monday Makings: Cookies (Chocolate Chip)

I (Judah) really like to bake. I particularly like to bake chocolate chip cookies. So today I want to share with you how I make them. The recipe I will be using is my favorite and is modified from the More-with-Less cookbook. However, these tips should work with most chocolate chip cookie recipes. In fact, they should apply to most drop cookies. My two main tips are:

• Undercook your cookies (see pictures below). Most drop cookies continue to cook and solidify after they come out of the oven. Try to take them out as soon as they start to turn golden brown even if they don't look done yet. You can always keep changing it up until you find out how to make them just right, but chances are it will be less time than your recipe calls for (not always the case if you are using stoneware, more on this later).
• Use butter! I usually replace all shortening (read: shortening, butter, margarine, etc) in my baking with butter. If that doesn't sound right for you, I would recommend at least half. Cookies are essentially fat, sugar, and flour mixed together; they aren't healthy. So why compromise on the flavor? So, use butter, enjoy it more, and, if you need to, eat less.

Okay, done rambling for now, on to the recipe.

Oven: 375 Bake Time: 8-12 minutes

1 c. Butter

1 c. Brown Sugar

1 c. Sugar

2 Eggs

2 T. Warm Water

2 t. Vanilla (FYI: a little extra vanilla is never a bad thing)

2 c. All-Purpose Flour

1 c. Whole Wheat Flour

1 t. Salt

1 t. Soda

2 c. Chocolate Chips (I use semi-sweet)

Here is a secret: if you have a nice sturdy mixer (we have an Artisan mixer by KitchenAid), you can combine more ingredients at a time than if you are mixing by hand or with a hand held mixer. So, if you are using a sturdy mixer you can add all of the ingredients in any given step into the mixer at one time and then thoroughly mix together (or you can just leave the mixer running)

1. Cream together the sugars and butter. Make sure the butter is soft enough to be fully incorporated, it is better to err on the side of too soft (melted) than not soft enough. Add the eggs, water, and vanilla and beat thoroughly.
2. Sift or whisk (no need if using a mixer) together the flours, baking soda, and salt. Add to liquid mixture and mix thoroughly.
3. Add chocolate chips and mix again.
4. Place balls of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet with room between them to expand. I do about 2 cm balls with 4ish cm between.
5. And bake! This is the most important part of the process and will vary greatly depending on your oven and what kind of cookie sheet you are using. So, here are three different kinds of cookie sheets and things to watch out for.
1. Solid metal pan.
1. This is probably the most stereotypical kind of cookie sheet and also the hardest to use. Because metal is a better conductor than air, the bottoms of the cookies will cook significantly faster (and get burnt) than the tops. If you are using a metal pan, I would recommend playing around with timing a lot, but a good place to start is a little bit before the tops of the cookies start to turn golden (I have found this to be about 2 minutes less than the shortest time given in most cookie recipes)

1. Insulated metal pan.
1. If you are new to baking and need to buy a cookie sheet this is what I would recommend. The air pockets prevents some of the trouble of the bottoms cooking too fast and burning. Though if you are using the same tray multiple times in a row, the burning could become a problem. Take the cookies out just as they start to turn golden.

1. Stoneware pan.
1. These are my favorite. Because stoneware is a significantly worse conductor than metal, the pan takes a lot longer to heat up and even once it is hot, it transfers the heat to the cookies much slower. This means that it is a lot harder to burn the bottoms of cookies. However this also means that it takes longer to cook. The first tray of cookies that goes into the oven will want to stay in a little past when the cookies start to turn golden as the pan heats up (this can sometimes be a minute or two longer than the recommended cooking time). For any consecutive trays the pan will already be hot, which means the dough will start cooking as soon as it is on the pan, even before it goes in the oven again. So, they will cook for less time just until they start to turn golden.

Now for some pictures. 

Being a dad takes priority over baking.

Butter!!

Mixing a bunch of ingredients together in one go.

I use a teaspoon to scoop my cookies.

When the cookies first come out of the oven they are puffed up and look a little under cooked.

After the cookies have cooled they have flattened out and are just the right amount of gooey.