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I want a good one. My favorite recipe has oatmeal in it, which Jon Boy isn't a huge fan of. I want a recipe for a cookie that both of us will love.
Here is what makes a good cookie (in my opinion):
1. butter, not shortening 2. a mixture of brown and white sugars 3. the ability to stay soft and moist even after cooling 4. After baking, the cookies should be somewhat flattened, but not pancakes. 5. richness of flavor
Do you have a recipe that fits the bill? I don't want to try a whole bunch of cookie recipes that aren't good before finally coming across one that is. Please help, Hatrack!
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I have a couple of great recipes that I make for my wife. One uses oats and one does not. I don't have them with me, but I'll try to post later.
But what I wanted to say was that I understand why you specify butter instead of shortening. The taste is better. However, the consistency of the cookie is tough to get right. It can easily get too crispy, or melt too flat. So to solve this problem I always use butter flavored Crisco. With this, you get the best of both worlds.
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I want a recipe that uses honey. You are making me want to make a half a batch of cookies or something... *Tries to talk myself out of it*
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Yup. Ghirardelli is what I always use. My wife is a chocolate snob, so Nestle and such are out.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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What Ruth isn't saying is that even though I have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe, she doesn't like it.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I'll have to see if I can find my chocolate chip recipe (I don't make them very often, because I just don't really like chocolate chip cookies). My boss' wife makes the absolute best cookies. She says that he secret is to use more flour than most recipes usually call for (another cup, at least - enough so the dough isn't sticky) to help to keep the cookies from going flat, and a ton more vanilla (a couple tablespoons) - which makes the flavor better and helps them to stay soft and not turn into little hockey-pucks (probably the biggest thing I dislike about chocolate chip cookies). I know that another trick for making soft cookies (that stay soft) is to cook them at a lower temperature (like 300 instead of 350) for a longer. Always let your cookies rest for 2-5 minutes on their pan before you remove them to a rack so the soft cookies have a chance to firm up.
I third the recommendation to use Ghiradelli chips (or at least use a semi-sweet chip - not a milk chocolate chip).
quote:Do you happen to have a bag? I don't buy Tollhouse, and I'd like to make some cookies today.
Here you go. Remember, replace the vanilla with almond extract (real, not imitation). Real butter is better than margarine, and sometimes I use half butter, half shortening to soften them up.
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Yes, Ghirardelli DOUBLE CHOCOLATE chips are the best. When they are in stock, you can get them for $1.59 at Trader Joes.
I say, it HAS to be real butter. Crisco just should not be.
Here's my recipe:
2 cups unbleached flour 1/2 cup dutched cocoa powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup unsalted butter, softened, NOT melted! ( this is the secret to consistency) 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cupo granulated sugar 2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla 1 bag Ghirardelli double chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375. Mix together ingredients, you can be a stickler and mix wet and dry in seperate bowls, add alternatley..but hey, I have a life, AND I usually do the dishes, so I throw it all in one bowl and beat the Hades out opf them with a wooden spoon. Better than therapy. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets, bake about 10 minutes. Enjoy!
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Ludosti, you just gave away MY cookie making secrets.
The ones I brought to the bunching weren't my best, I don't think I went nuts on the vanilla like I should have.
Another thing about vanilla. Find a way to get the real stuff from mexico. If you are in AZ, you can go to a Food City store and they have Molina brand from Mexico, which is my personal choice.
Posts: 995 | Registered: May 2003
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Another trick I use (by order of my wife, the connoisseur) is to slightly undercook the cookies. My Mom and Grandma always overcooked, so I never really knew what a soft, moist cookie was until my wife made me take the cookies out about 1 full minute before what the recipe called for. You can tell they're ready when you can just barely see a golden-brown color at the highest points of the cookies. If that color spreads further, it's baked too much.
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apparently they weren't really my secrets to begin with. My mom is always very liberal with her recipe secrets. She figures everyone should be able to make and eat good food.
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We've been having trouble with flat cookies since we bought air-bake pans. Anyone know why this might be? I used to add extra flour and sugar to my dough (don't remember the exact amounts now) and made these awesome cookies that were almost scone-like. However, even this recipe falls flat on the air-bake pans. Ludosti mentioned a lower temperature, I'll have to try that next time.
Brinestone, I also like to use oatmeal and even cinnamon sometimes in my cookies. Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote: Continue making your cookies the way you like them. Only let Jon Boy have cookies once a year, and those cookies will be these cookies.
He'll fall into line.
Changing someone is all about patience.
Um, who are we talking about here? Jon Boy is the coolest person on this forum. It's clear he should have all the cookies he wants. Further, you should feel lucky that he chooses to grace us with his insightful comments and uproarious jokes.
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Here's the recipe based on the one that came with my Kitchenaid mixer. If you like it, it's really easy to remember too.:
1 cup butter (room temp is good) 1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar "cream" together 2 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs (large is best) stir in
in a separate container combine: 3 cups flour 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking soda stir into wet ingredients gradually add your bag of chips
bake at 375 for 12-16 minutes, watch and bring them out as soon as they've all fallen.
up to 1/4 cup extra flour may help them not to spread too crazy if you are at a high altitude. Edit: the applesauce replacement for butter works well for oatmeal, but not for chocolate chip. At least not with the additional flour. They came out really cakey this time.
A slice of bread with cooled cookies helps soften them.
My husband is a committed dough eater, and he says this is the best tasting dough.
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I find the cookie recipe from the Silk box to be quite gooilicious. But it's got an insane proportion of butter and sugar to other ingredients. Also, my inlaws have taken to shaping the dough into "towers" to produce the desired effect. But they really are like Soft Batch brand cookies, except not so manufactured-tasting.
Posts: 383 | Registered: Nov 2003
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quote:Um, who are we talking about here? Have you ever actually tried to have a conversation with Jon Boy? You're lucky if you can get him to pay attention to what you actually say without going into fits about your grammar.
That's it, Storm. You're going DOWN.
Addendum: Et tu, Storm? I defended your pronunciation of "crepe." Such betrayal . . .
[ March 26, 2004, 08:19 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Here's one of my faves, a recipe from my grandma's church ladies' cookbook:
Italian Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 lb. margarine or butter 1 lb. Ricotta cheese or cottage cheese 1 Tbsp. vanilla 4 c. flour 2 c. sugar 1 tsp. baking soda 2 eggs 1 tsp. salt 1 large bag choc. chips
Beat butter & sugar til fluffy. Add eggs & cheese, mix well. Add dry ingredients, mix well, then add chips. Drop on greased cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 min. Yield 5 doz.
I use butter and cottage cheese. Cottage cheese works fine -- I've actually never tried using Ricotta since it's more expensive...
Anyway, this is a GREAT recipe. It's especially good if you refrigerate the cookies after they're baked -- biting into a cool, moist cookie and chomping on a cool chunk of chocolate...
Mmmm, I haven't made these in a long time, and we've got some cottage cheese around...
(I accidentally used buckwheat flour once -- that actually made for a pretty interesting variation!)
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Those Double Chocolate Dream Cookies are just heavenly, aren't they Nathan? We found that recipe on the side of a Toll House bag of chocolate chips. I'm always in the mood to make a batch if you're ever in the need of a chocolate fix.
Ruth, my roommate is from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and she used to work for them. She managed to get their recipe for chocolate cookies, and they are absolutely perfect in my opinion. Only problem is it breaks your rule for no shortening. The cookies are so good though! I have to ask my roommate if it would be ok to share the recipe, but if you'd be willing to try shortening I think you'd be pleasantly surprised with this recipe. I never thought I'd prefer a recipe that had shortening in it over one with butter, but I do. Let me know if you'd like me to email you either of these two recipes. (Chocolate Dream Cookies don't fit the traditional chocolate chip cookie category, but it's a good recipe to have around. )
Posts: 1635 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I chop ScharffenBerger unsweetened chocolate into chunks and add it to my cookies, along with freshly roasted hazelnuts or some fresh pecans from my parents' pecan trees. Their unsweetened chocolate is so mild you can almost eat it straight.
Also try using Horizon Organic butter or a European butter like Lurpac. The flavor is so much better than the tasteless store brands.
It costs a little more, but then I have all my co-workers wrapped around my little finger.
I recommend The Best Recipe as a place to start. Cook's Illustrated magazine has a test kitchen where they make every possible version of a recipe, then pick the best one(s) to include in the book. Very Cool. Posts: 173 | Registered: Jun 2002
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I guess that explains why I liked your cookies though - you did them right! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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That's it, Storm. You're going DOWN.![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
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