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Exciting post today! I’m sharing part 2 of my Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookie series with you. Click here for The Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies Part ONE, The Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies Part 3, and The Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies Part 4!
I used the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (at the bottom of this post) as my control and made little changes and variations in techniques and ingredients to show you how they affect the cookie. I halved and adapted the original Tollhouse recipe and that is what you see here. I kept everything the same through each recipe test, changing one key thing to see its effect and photographing the results for you. The first post was such a huge success that I knew I had to write another one with different ingredients and techniques tested. I listened to all of your requests for what you would like to see and tested many of them to share the results with you today. Keep reading to find out how dark nonstick baking pans, cornstarch, egg yolks, cake flour, bread flour, and shortening affect chocolate chip cookies.
Tools and Ingredients Used (when applicable):
-Spring-Loaded Cookie Scoop (Medium or 1 1/2-Tablespoon size)
–Chicago Metallic sheet pans
–Escali Digital Food Scale
–KitchenAid 5-quart Stand Mixer
–Oven thermometer
–Unbleached parchment paper
-Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour
-Fine sea salt
-Light brown sugar
-Large eggs
-Unsalted butter at a cool room temperature
-350°F oven and 10 minute baking time for each test
Control
Note: This is my adapted version of the Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe, which I used for each of these batches.
Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (142 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup (170 grams) semi sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper.
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, beating well to combine. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls and place onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
Dark Nonstick Baking Sheet:
Instead of using a Chicago Metallic sheet pans with a Silpat baking mat, I baked the control recipe directly on a dark nonstick baking sheet to test the differences between baking sheets. As you can see, the dark nonstick sheet significantly increased the browning on the bottom of the cookies. The cookies browned on the bottom more quickly, causing them to spread a little less. They also had more of a crunch due to the browning. If you have a problem with your cookies burning on the bottom, it may be due to your baking sheet. Luckily these ones didn’t burn and were quite tasty. However, I prefer to use unlined baking sheets to ensure my cookies won’t burn.
Cornstarch:
Added 2 teaspoons cornstarch to the cookie dough along with the dry ingredients. The cornstarch cookies were more pale in color but had crisp edges and very soft and slightly gooey interiors. I was surprised by the amount of spread these cookies had, I thought they’d be thicker considering cornstarch is a thickener. Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction has a very popular cornstarch chocolate chip cookie recipe that calls for melted butter and chilling the dough so I wonder if one or both of those steps creates the best effect with the cornstarch. Sally’s cookie recipe also has a higher ratio of flour to butter compared to the Nestle Tollhouse recipe. I’m thinking these differences must produce a thicker cookie.
Extra Egg Yolk:
In addition to the whole egg called for in the control recipe, I added an extra egg yolk to this test. This produced ultra soft cookies with a little bit of a chew. Egg yolk is full of fat which acts as a tenderizer. This allows you to add softness to your cookies without having to add more butter. I think the extra liquid added to the dough from the yolk increased the cookie’s spread. If you want to add more softness to your cookies with an extra egg yolk, you may want to add a little more flour to create a thicker cookie.
Cake flour:
I swapped out all the all-purpose flour for 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (127 grams) and the results were interesting. These cookies turned very brown and looked like they would be crispy but were actually very soft. Someone actually called these cookies “mushy.” They spread out fairly flat.
You can learn more about the science of cake flour here.
Bread flour:
I swapped out the all-purpose flour for 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons bread flour (142 grams) and the resulting cookies were thick and ultra chewy. My boyfriend and I both favored these cookies over many of the other trials. If you like thick, chewy cookies I would try substituting at least half of the all-purpose flour in your favorite cookie recipe with bread flour. It totally makes sense now why Alton Brown uses bread flour in his “The Chewy” cookie recipe.
Shortening:
Okay, I had a LOT of requests to test of the differences between butter and shortening. I don’t use shortening in my house, I don’t like it. BUT I went out and got some Crisco just for you guys since you all asked so nicely! Plus I was quite curious about what kind of cookie shortening would produce since so many of you swear by using all shortening or half shortening half butter. For this trial I swapped out all of the butter with an equal amount of vegetable shortening and the resulting cookies were more pale and had a thicker texture that was crisp at the edges and soft in the middle. I thought these cookies would be super greasy but they weren’t. Tasting these shortening cookies made me realize that many bakeries and chain restaurants that serve chocolate chip cookies must use shortening because they had a similar taste and texture to those cookies. I was surprised to find these cookies didn’t taste super artificial or plastic-like, however they didn’t have that crave-worthy butter flavor either. The texture was fantastic but they definitely lacked flavor.
Comparison:
[updated photo 2015]
Hi Tessa! Thanks for having the patience to do all those trials. You’ve been a godsend: I’ve finally been able to make excellent cookies. 🙂 I do have a question, though. I’ve been using all dark brown sugar and all bread flour in my cookies, but they never get as thick as the ones in the bread flour photo above. They’re flat, but very chewy and tasty. I’d love to get thicker cookies. Would you be able to point me in the right direction? I use a scoop to measure the dough out and bake them on an unlined, light colored cookie sheet. I also live in a somewhat high altitude city in Southeast Asia, if that helps. Thank you! 🙂
I really enjoyed your comparisons of various recipe variations. I use a combination of butter and butter-flavored Crisco, regular and dark brown sugar, add oatmeal and swap out 1/2 cup of whole wheat for the regular unbleached flour. However I also have a recipe that ran in the NY Times a few years ago for Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chip Cookies. It uses a mix of cake and bread flour, light brown and regular sugar, both baking soda and powder, dark chocolate chips, and requires chilling the dough for 24-36 hours. The finished product is HUGE (3.5 oz), with crunchy edges and a chewy center. They are fabulous — but I still love my standard tollhouse-type CCCs. The “Neiman Marcus” style CCCs are great too for a change of pace.
I have a friend who comes and does heavy work, repairs for me and the only think he wants in return is Chocolate Chip Cookies. I have made so many of these in the past year and they always turn out different every time. They range from hard as a rock, very crunchy, cakey, etc. and I never knew what I was doing wrong. Your site is a god-send to me. I have all the items you use but I also think one of my problems may be in creaming the sugars and fats too long. Was told I should be able to really feel the sugars so I have been creaming for 5 min or better. So after the new year is over and I have an operating kitchen I will get going on your way of doing it. Had a tree fall on the kitchen and it has been out of commission for 7 months. Last week they brought in all my cabinetry and counters and today the appliances showed up. Nothing hooked up but I can see that light at the end of the tunnel. Chocolate chip cookies will be my first baking endeavor. Thanks again for such a great post and so glad I found you on pintrest.
I’m so sorry to hear about your misfortune. I’m glad you enjoyed the post and I can’t wait to hear about your first baking endeavor once your kitchen is back in commission!
I would, similar to app103 (above), like to see some fat comparisons, which I know affect the result quite a bit:
* butter (standard), salted vs. unsalted (any difference other than saltiness?)
* butter/margarine combination (this is what my mom always did)
* margarine
* Crisco, butter flavored
* Crisco/butter combination
* Crisco/margarine combination
* margarine spread (specify what brand — I was thinking Imperial, as it claims it can be used in place of margarine in recipes
* lard
* lard/butter combination
Very interesting — I love your approach!
@Luke – Don’t use honey instead of sugar, unless you want to make pancakes instead of cookies, as they will spread a lot and be very moist and cake-like.
@Tessa – You could do a Part 3, in which you make substitutions of the following:
– Fats: liquid vegetable oil, lard
– Flours: whole wheat, coconut flour, various nut flours
– Sugars: powdered sugar, replacing the white sugar with molasses, replacing all sugars with a combo of powdered milk and sugar-free sweetener
– Additions: increase the ph with the addition of lemon juice, vinegar, or orange juice
– Subtractions: leave out the yolks, leave out the whites, leave out the eggs entirely
Great site – glad I found it via Google
I have always been curious why my cooies sometimes come out a little different, and now I can see why.
Have you tried honey instead of sugar in some test batch Chocolate Chip cookies? I am thinking of trying it myself, but all your cookies look better than mine
Well now I am definitely going to buy some bread flour for the next time I make chocolate chip cookies! My mom always used all shortening, no butter, and even though I liked the texture – I never thought they had much flavor. Now it looks as though I can get the texture I want with bread flour, and I won’t have to sacrifice the butter! Yay! Thanks!
To the person asking about air bake pans a few months ago: I use a Calphalon air baking sheet exclusively for cookies and I’m not going back (until I burn the heck out of it I suppose I’d give up lol). The first use was strange. None of my recipes came out at the same time as usual and I burned a few things before I got it down. It cooks quicker and more evenly. I haven’t seen a burnt cookie bottom in a LONG time. I always watch the cookies at the end instead of timing exclusively on new recipes, whereas on my plain baking sheet time suggestions were accurate.
Sometimes when in a hurry with too many batches I bake on a super cheap walmart baking sheet with a silipat on top and notice no difference. I don’t bother with the silipat on the calphalon if it’s a sturdy cookie like the tollhouse that will transfer easily to the cooling rack. So the calphalon air baking sheet is not a game changer, just easier to clean than a silipat.
Tessa: you seemed unimpressed with the cornstarch as a cure-all for the chocolate chip, correct? Only effective with completely different recipe?
Also, in this, and any recipe, how does the butter vs margarine and salted vs unsalted change things?
I’m assuming you used normal, white Crisco. I would like to see a half butter, half white Crisco comparison; a half white Crisco and half butter-flavored Crisco comparison; and an all butter-flavored Crisco comparison. I’d also like to see a higher temp and shorter cook-time comparison.
Thank you so much for this. I need it. My cookies never work out.
Very well done on the trials and the documentation. Really well worth it. Thank you.
My friend swears she can soften hard cookies by putting them in a ziplock bag overnight with a piece of bread. I’ve never bothered but am really curious to see if it works (my cookies come out soft 90% of the time! but it would be interesting to use this to get a softer cookie with one of the crispy effects or a good compromise in a household with different preferences)