Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Independent lab results

 

By rights, this is Rebecca's post. She's the one who made the cookies, and took the pictures. I did eat a couple, though. So I guess I'm entitled. :)

More pics below the fold...

 

 


Rebecca's burning question is: if we use the premium chocolate chips and the cookie salting with the Toll House recipe, will that be just as good? Clearly an avenue for future research.

Incidentally, from my own point of view, I thought they were pretty good. I could see how the salt and chocolate need to be carefully balanced. Why not just lightly salt the chips, guaranteeing the salt/chocolate balance in every nibble? :)
Posted by Picasa

Click here to return to Gnomicon home page

5 comments:

Rebecca said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rebecca said...

Thanks for posting Bob! I was too tired.

I don't think my cookies turned out that great. Maybe I baked them for too long. I was worried that the center was too raw so I left them in for a little while. Maybe my oven isn't correctly calibrated. I should check it with a thermometer... Also, the cookies were super puffy. I personally don't like that style of cookie. I like them flatter and chewer.

So, I'm not a convert. They were more work and I don't think the cookie part was as good as a tollhouse cookie. I did like the darker chocolate chips and the salt. Bob didn't like the salt. I'll have to try a lighter hand with the salt and see if he thinks it's better.

I also made some that were smaller and I think they were better - I cooked them less and they were not as crispy, but they were still puffy.

Sarah said...

I am totally bummed that this batch didn't turn out well.

They look weird. Granted, I've never executed the recipe perfectly, so my outcomes might not be standard. Mine have come out of the oven ever so slightly puffed, but their puffing is more even and then they flatten out quite nicely. None of the batches I've made were ever that thick or lumpy or browned looking.

None of the batches I've made turned out any way other than chewy, too. My oven is right on the money and I leave them in for 18 minutes. I have heard other bloggers say that the centers seem underdone when they first come out of the oven but then firm up over the cooling period. I have also found that to be the case. This allows them to maintain their chewiness over a number of days (The longest one of ours has gone without being eaten is 3 days and it was still chewy goodness.)

What kind of flours did you use? You mentioned that the dough tasted floury. Would flour differences cause a puffy, lumpy, less yummy cookie?

What kind of chips did you use? Not Martha recently did one with Valhrona feves and didn't like it as much as the Ghiradelli 60% cacao chips.

I totally want to troubleshoot this cookie until you're convinced it is superior to toll house. :)

Rebecca said...

I don't think that it was the fault of the flour, but maybe. I used standard cake flour and bread flour. I used the Ghiradelli 60% cacao chips, which I liked.

I think I'm just overextended this week, but I'm not feeling the love for the recipe. I mean, the cookies will get eaten, but needing extra ingredients and extra means that I will probably not make these again any time soon. The thing I like about baking is that you follow the recipe, you get the results. If the recipe is this sensitive, it's not a good recipe. But, others have had success, so maybe I did something weird and screwed them up.

Personally, I think it's the baking soda in the cookies that I don't like. I think that is what makes them puffy.

Rebecca said...

Cookies were a big hit at the math tea. Guess I was being over critical?