Wednesday, July 16, 2008

On a Mission


The perfect chocolate chip cookie is something I have always been on a mission to make. In my mind there are two kinds of chocolate chip cookie – what I think of as the American one which is made with butter, eggs and usually two kinds of sugar, and the New Zealand version which is made with butter, condensed milk and white sugar. I love both kinds. The NZ chocolate chip cookie is the one from my childhood – an easy but yummy biscuit to quickly whip up. This blog entry is about the American version.

There is always great debate as to what is the perfect cookie. Joy from Joy the Baker has run a series on it on her blog over the last week. My perfect cookie is crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle with a certain amount of thickness that gives the cookie substance. I also like lots of chocolate! The double chocolate pecan cookies I made last week were a fantastic texture – I must try those without the cocoa powder to see what the they are like.

On Sunday I thought I would try Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I had already tried the variation on them when I made her peanutbutter chocolate chip cookies – they were fantastic. In fact my sister took them home with her, gave one to her boyfriend and told him that she had made them (she doesn’t even know what creaming butter is!!!). He said they were the best cookies he has tasted –when she asked me for the recipe I said not until you tell him that I made them, not you!

Anyway, I digress!! Back to the normal CCCs. Dorie’s CCCs were nowhere near my best attempt at making CCCc. They are way too flat. The flavour is nice, but they are also slightly too crisp. The pre-dominant sugar is white sugar – I think I prefer more brown sugar than white. There is also only a small amount of baking soda in the cookies – I think they need more raising agent. I must admit that I did not use the best chocolate I had on hand, just using chocolate chips and I was a bit mean with them, but I don’t think that would have made a difference.

I was disappointed with the flat crisp cookies. I am still on a mission. I will keep you posted…

4 comments:

Jennynz said...

The DCP cookies definately had the perfect texture for a CCC. Now, how can you replicate that texture in a true CCC?

Anonymous said...

Have you heard about the New York Times article from (I think) last week about chocolate chip cookies? Orangette blogged about the recipe this morning and said it was the best CCC she'd ever had. That's one you may want to check out. I started a variation of them right after I read her blog entry!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Bridget - definitely try the NY Times version. We've been eating them all week, totally irresistible.

Cakelaw said...

We look forward to seeing the results of your mission!