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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]
AMAZING work you have done! I have never been able to come up with a good chocolate cookie to my satisfaction even thought people around me like it. I like it a little crisp on the outside, with a little chewiness. I have tried different recipes, and still haven’t found one. I think the issue I have is, not enough sugar. I tend use 1/2 the sugar recipes ask for, and only use raw sugar in all my baking and cooking. To compensate for the extra moisture, I add a tablespoon of honey. Currently in my refrigerator is a modified Tollhouse recipe, using unsweetened applesauce to replace the 3/4 cup of the brown sugar; 1/2 C of raw sugar instead of 3/4 C for white sugar. Well see how it turns out. I need to be more like you, and just try different variables at different times. Thank you for the inspiration!
For years my Aunt Rita has made the most amazing CC cookies and says she’s using the TH recipe but I think I’ve finally figured out her adjustments! They look like the all brown sugar, but are fuller so I’m guessing she uses bread flour and chills them too. She lives so far away and is getting older now. I hope I can try these adjustments and recreate her cookies if she is no longer able to make them. The only other thing I can think of that could make them any different is the love that she puts in them. I hope that I can come close so that we’ll always have a reminder of her on the days when Aunt Rita’s cookies and a cappucinno just made everything better.
Came across this and my 13 year old decided to recreate the tests for her science experiment. We had the control batch (bag recipe), then we used: all baking powder, all granulated, all brown sugar, all bread flour and all melted/cooled butter. We did everything the same, baking pans, cooking time, etc. Interestingly enough, our results were different than yours, which I do not understand.
The bread flour cookies, however, fell flat.
The all granulated are just as thick as the original. They did not fall flat. I was really looking forward to the all granulated falling flat so my 13 year old would have to research why they weren’t thick (didn’t allow 13 year old to read your blog yet).
Any ideas? I really do not want to remake these batches!
Hi Tracy. It’s really difficult to answer your question since I didn’t get to see your 13 year old’s kitchen experiments to see what might have happened. I’m most surprised by the granulated sugar cookies, because from my personal experience and from what baking science tells us, the granulated sugar offers no acid to react with the baking soda so there is no leavening powder in those cookies and the white sugar doesn’t provide moisture like brown sugar does so it tends to create flatter and crisper cookies. If you do a simple Google search of this you’ll find the same info (there’s a good article on Serious Eats about cookies). I’m really not sure why you experienced different results, but my suspicion is that maybe the sugar + butter were overbeaten, or too much flour was added to the dough (did you weigh the flour?). Also, did you use an oven thermometer to ensure your oven was at a consistent temperature throughout your experiments?
Any chance you’re going to experiment with gluten free chocolate chip cookies?
Thirty some years ago a friend of mine and I were studying abroad and found ourselves missing Chocolate Chip cookies. We were in London, and I can’t remember now if we didn’t have a recipe or if we got one off the back of the bag of chocolate chips. I remember that the sugar and flour in that country looked different than I was used to; the cookies they produced were nothing like I’ve seen before or since. They were almost like Lace cookies, *very* gooey until cool and then very crispy. We’ve tried to recreate them since returning to the states and have never succeeded. Any idea what ingredients/process might lead to such a result?
Interesting!! It can be quite challenging to recreate recipes from other countries, the ingredients are just not the same. I couldn’t really say what might create that result, though I’d be curious to see the possible recipe from the back of the bag of chocolate.
I use my great grandmas recipe which is half shortening half butter makes crave worthy but gooey with no burning like I’ve experienced with just butter everyone loves my cookies
I just found your blog and am really appreciating this cookie information. My husband and I own a whole-grain bakery where we mill our own flours. I am interested in trying the bread flour we use (milled from an uncommon variety of wheat with a lovely, mild flavor and aroma) in place of the soft, locally grown wheat that we have been using for all of our pastries. I do have a suggestion for another ingredient: coconut oil. We switched from shortening (ugh!) to coconut oil quite a while ago and found it made dramatic improvements in both taste and texture. It is definitely worth the extra cost. Finally, we are now making our own vanilla and I can’t wait to see the difference with that, too. Thank you, again, for your scientific approach to this project!
I make a lot of Chocolate Chip cookies. over 130 dozen at Christmas time. the Christmas ones have a little peppermint twist. I use the recipe on the Butter Flavor Crisco sticks and have never had it not turn out well. I Love the flavor. It uses all brown sugar, baking soda and all purpose flour. I do add about 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon to the recipe which gives it just a little different taste. I always use light colored 1/2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Just a note. I live in Colorado. When I moved here from California I had to change my recipe and add a bit more flour because of the altitude. I have done that with most (not all) of my recipes. Flat cookies might just be a result of altitude.
“I was surprised to find these cookies didn’t taste super artificial or plastic-like”
REALLY? Are you THAT out of touch and prejudicial about food ingredients????
REALLY? Plastic-like? PLASTIC-LIKE?
Well, la-di-da, got to go play the Grande Piano, now.
Great article! Thanks for all the helpful information. 🙂
What makes these so quick to burn on bottom?
http://www.coconutoil-online.com/Ginger_Crinkle_Cookies.html
GINGER CRINKLES
2 1/4 cups flour (I like King Arthur unbleached)
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar (192 grams)
3/4 cup Coconut Oil Supreme™ (melted) (157 grams)
1/4 cup dark molasses (56 grams)
1 large egg (room temperature)
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Combine egg, brown sugar and molasses and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add coconut oil and continue mixing until all of the oil is incorporated into the first mixture.
Sift together flour, baking soda, spices and salt and then add to liquid mixture. Mix on low-medium speed until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated and it forms a smooth oily dough. Make walnut-sized balls of dough and drop them into a bowl of raw sugar and roll around until coated on all sides. I use a #40 disher to make uniform balls of
dough and to speed up this process. Using this disher a single batch produces 24 cookies.
Bake about 2 inches apart on parchment paper for about 10 minutes or until cookies puff up and split apart on top.
After removing from oven, slide parchment paper from cookie sheet onto a cooling rack and allow cookies to cool before removing them.
WOW… I was just thinking about doing this and then came across your site… I love you for doing this! The picture of all the diff cookies side-by-side was an amazing help for me!! Thank you so much!
I have been playing around with more of the organic-type cookie. I tried using half organic butter and half organic coconut oil. Since it is winter in AZ right now, the coconut oil is not in a liquid form – but not really solid either. My last batch looked like your All Granulated Sugar sample, tho’ I followed the Toll House recipe pretty much. This last batch I put the 8 tablespoons of coconut oil in the freezer for 15 minutes. They were rock solid when I took them out. I also used cooler-than-room-temp butter. I sort of mashed a little then mixed a little, back and forth, until the butter and coconut oil were well blended with the flour mixture (half organic whole wheat and half Pilsbury all purpose).
The cookies were actually pretty good and still had that buttery flavor. I also added a cup of chopped walnuts.
It seems that when I’m trying recipes for the “perfect” cookie for our family, it doesn’t matter how I change the recipe, those cookies are always gone in record time!
Thanks for all you do!