Genetically Modified Cookies

Not happy with the results of my first brush with the famed NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I decided to tinker. My first step was to analyze the differences in the recipe of my current favorite Tollhouse cookies with the NYT recipe.




I have included a comparison pie chart (minus the teaspoon ingredients) with stuff entered in ounces. (I had to estimate the weight of flour for the tollhouse cookies because it's only listed in cups. But, with my use of proportions, I think that I'm close.)



As you can see, there isn't a tremendous difference. There is a higher percentage of flour and a lower percentage of butter and eggs in the nyt recipe, but it's not major. The one main difference that you can't see from this chart is the inclusion of baking powder in the nyt recipe. I have a strong preference for flat chocolate chip cookies, which is why I love the tollhouse ones so much. But, I thought maybe if I left out the baking powder from the nyt cookies, I would love them too. So, tonight, I made a batch without to see what would happen.

They we definitely more to my liking than the first time. But, they were still a little too puffy.




I didn't let this batch rest yet. I will try a new batch tomorrow and see how it goes. Also, as you can see, the batch I made is smaller cookies - I got 11 on a cookie sheet instead of 6.

One final experiment with this batch was with the salt. Bob thought the cookies before were too salty. This time I made some with my super fancy crystals that crumble salt and then some with the fine sea salt. Bob liked the fine sea salt but I still liked the crumbled salt because it is uneven.

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