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Help I Need Cookie Help
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Yikes! Ok, I'm no cook and I'd never be able to help you--I wish I could, believe me!!!If none of the Chicks can help you (though I'm sure they can), you should ask them at What's Cookin.
I use margarine in my CC cookies. And equal measurements of white and brown sugar. Also make sure you have enough flour, I live in a fairly high altitude and if I don't have enough flour they will be flat and crispy. If there is enough flour the dough will be fairly stiff. CC cookies are my favorite and best thing I bake...even though I don't bake them often.
Hummm...mine are usually thin but crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. I use Crisco.I'm unsure how they get their cookies so big and so thick...
OH yeah, I'm partial to Blue Bonnet margarine in my CC cookies as well...tastes best to me.
Do you get yours uniformly thick Thauna? How do they do that in the coffee places?*beating my head to a bloody pulp*
Hmm, mine aren't as uniformly thick like coffee places...I've never really tried to do that. I have a friend that uses a small ice cream scope to make hers the same size, but I've never put that much effort into it. I just do the old drop from two teaspoons.
I've found 2 recipes on recipezaar.com that may work - wanted to let everyone know:http://www.recipezaar.com/Thick-and-C...
and
http://www.recipezaar.com/Thick-Soft-...
Does anyone know if substituting butter for ALL the shortening would make the cookies chewy without the crisp outside?
Mod
I'm intrigued by the pudding mix too...I just use a recipe on the back of a bag too and alter it a bit, like using the same amount of white and brown sugar. I'm going to try the pudding!
I would rather use butter than shortening anyway. I figure trans fat is probably worse than sat. fat.Another thought - if you like the look of cookies that come from balls, but don't want to roll all your cookies 1st - try using a melon baller (my daughter's idea & she doesn't even cook or bake!) The melon baller works great!
I feel like I've tried that pudding thing before. I think it made the cookies sweeter and chewier. But they taste a little less like chocolate chip cookies - if that makes any sense. You guys should try it tho and see what you think!
I've been reading the Hannah Swensen murder mysteries by Joanne Fluke and it looks like the trick is to use all butter and chill the dough before baking it.I can also tell you that in coffee places (since I worked in one for a while) they bake cookies with dough straight from the freezer and its also a LOT of dough per cookie. The dough should be something like 1/3 to 1/2 cup for the saucer sized ones you see in most Starbucks.
Hope this helps!
Mod
1c sugar
1 1/2c brown sugar
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 c flour
2 c chocolate chips
cream butter and sugars. add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. In a separate bowl sift dry ingredients together and add gradually to other mixture. Mix in chips. Bake @ 35o for 12 mins or until lightly browned. Allow to set for 2 mins and remove to cooling racks. Makes about 3 dozen.
I was curious about a few things and did some research and found this ....
Fats - The fats most often used in cookies are butter, margarine, shortening and oil. Fats play a major roll in the spread of your cookie. In other words, they help to determine if your cookie spreads out into a thin mass on the cookie sheet or pretty much keeps its original shape. Shortening, margarine and spreads are fairly stable so they will help cookies keep their original unbaked shape. Butter melts at a much lower temperature than the other solid fats, so cookies made with it will tend to spread out. And oil, since it already is a liquid at room temperature, produces cookies that keep their shape. The amount of fat also affects the cookies, you can basically think of it this way: More fat equals flatter and chewier to crispier cookies. Less fat equals puffier and more cake-like cookies.
and ...
White sugar will make a crisper cookie than one made with brown sugar, molasses or honey. It doesn't attract as much moisture from the environment keeping them crispy.
Cookies made with brown sugar tend to be more soft and chewy. It's because brown sugar contains molasses which is hygroscopic and absorbs water from the atmosphere. In fact, upon standing, cookies made from brown sugar stay chewy.
I can attest to the brown sugar thing. Orignally the recipe I use called for 1 and 1/4 of each brown and white sugar but I experimented and found if I added only 1 white sugar and upped the brown it was even chewier.
Thanks Sonja and Tera!Tera, does yours turn out thick or flat with the all butter, no shortening? What I read seemed to point to more butter, less or no shortening too, but yours seems to say that butter cookies tend to spread out more.
Mod
Thanks. I'll prob. have to experiment some. I'm thinking about making them, freezing the dough maybe into juice glass-sized disks that are like 1/2" thick, then bake them that way & see what happens. My sister also suggested stacking 2 cookie sheets on top of each other so the bottoms won't get too brown. She just adds more flour to get them not to be too flat & crisp. And her husband said to use butter, but melt it first before adding to the dough. I've never tried melting the butter.It's weird how the smallest thing can make a big difference. Someone said it's really important to use all brown sugar and no white if you don't want crisp.
I'll go in another direction here... for years I've tried different recipes, different butter/margarines, etc. and the best chocolate chip cookies (everyone raves) that I've found is the big Pillsbury plastic tub of dough that can be found at Sam's Club. And depending on the size and temperature setting, you can definitely control the crisp factor...
I think it is the all butter thing. I have one of Mrs. Fields that is soft and chewy. It says to only use the real stuff. I'll see if I can round it up but it sounds similar to Teras.
I just wanna start callin' y'all "Puddin!" It's so damn cute I can't stand it. (This is what happens when you live in the south--you wanna give everything and everyone a nickname.)Manufactured cookies often have weird preservatives and leavenings and stuff in them. I don't trust 'em.
I found it. It's the one in Top Secret cookbook for Mrs fields cookies. I love this recipe. They are soft and chewy on the inside and just the tiniest bit crisp on the outside. Ingredients
1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
18 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
1Preheat oven to 350°.
2In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
3In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
5Stir in chocolate chips.
6With your fingers, place golf ball-sized dough portions 2-inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
7Bake 9-10 minutes or just until edges are light brown.
I've always used the recipe on the chocolate chip bag. I used to dump everything in a large bowl and mix the dough up by hand. But since I received a lovely KitchenAid mixer as a wedding present a couple years ago, I started mix creaming the butter and sugar and eggs first, then adding the dry ingredients. That seems to make a real difference in the consistency. I end up with a much softer cookie. Oh, and I always use butter.
Thanks chicks! I'll let you all know how it works out :)
The only cookie my daughter is asking for for Christmas is a thick, chewy-not-crispy chocolate chip. You know, like you find at coffee houses? (She works at Starbucks. I can't compete with them!)
Anyway, mine always turn out thin and crispy, not thick and chewy and yummy.
I do use Smart Balance Light instead of butter. Is this why? But then how do you make them like 1/4" thick AND chewy?
Please someone help !
*ahem*
Thank you.