Go to the Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Well, I found what I'm making next. Can't wait to try it. I love you guys!
Thanks for posting! Just curious, did you not find a significant benefit to chilling the dough longer, like overnight or 24 hours? I thought the longer chill time gave the flour a chance to hydrate and develop a more "mature" flavor.
They look amazing.
Firstly, stop scaring people away from AP flour. Good quality AP is absolutely predictable. Jeeze. Anyway, If you wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it, then form (just slightly larger than) golf ball sized balls, you will not need to push down to get the shape/texture. It does it for you. The picture I've added are unadulterated cookies (yes, with AP flour) They're dense, chewy (and remain so). They're perfect.
I was slightly disappointed that I couldn't make this cookies sous-vide.
Looks beautiful as always. I notice the recipe simply calls for "butter"; was there no preference for un-salted over salted (or vice versa)?
Looks great! How many grams of milk?
Since I started making the cookies that America's Test Kitchen developed, I haven't made another chocolate chip cookie. They start by browning part of the butter and then adding the sugars and eggs and beating 30 seconds and allowing to sit 3 minutes. After doing this about four times, the sugars dissolve. The cookies are soft and moist and have an amazing flavor. (I also add some invert sugar to the dough, which has hydroscopic - it holds moisture - properties that keep cookies soft. Learned that from an old baker a long time ago.)
What is pastry flour?? Here in Japan, I can get bread flour, most likely imported from the U.S., most likely King Author. I can get cake flour. From specialy shops online, I can get French baguette flour and maybe Italian 00 flour. But pastry flour?? I don't think so. What can I use instead. There is no such thing as AP flour in Japan.
Bread flour is second-best. No all-purpose flour in Japan?! So interesting!
Why do say to use a paddle, but show a pic of a hook in the mixer?
Cute!
I always form a loaf out of my dough and wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it for an hour or so. I then form balls, and the cookies always come out consistent. Perfect shape and thickness, everytime.
Re: Peanut-butter--does it need to be one of the megabrand super-homogenized sugared ones to work properly at the insertion ratio mentioned above, or would one of the organic healthier-than-thou kind work as well (as long as it has salt)?
A few thoughts about metric conversions:
I am very happy to see that the recipe was written in grams. I love cooking with grams and my scale. Thank you! But I have something to say about how those measurements are converted and often displayed in recipes that I have seen on the web in general.
About converting American measurements to metric measurements: I live in Japan and everything is digital, we use kilograms, kilometers and centigrade. I have learned to adjust after 45 years! Thank goodness! I use a scale on a daily basis. It is no big deal. I keep a set of US cups for my American cookbooks and metric cups for cookbooks from the REST OF THE WORLD!
I noticed that everything was in grams or other metric measurements. Even the oven temperature. But I have a quibble with how the oven temperature was converted and displayed in the recipe: Just because 375°F converts to 191°C mathematically, doesn't mean you should put it in the recipe like that. There is no oven in most kitchens with settings so detailed that you can set the oven to 191°C!!! The closest you can get to that setting is 190°C. It really frustrates me to see unthinking conversions like that in recipes. It's mechanical and unthinking. It's like saying that 2/3 of a cup of water is 158 mL (which I have seen in lots of converted recipes). Mathematically, it may be true. But there is no cup that can measure that amount in a normal kitchen. It should be rounded to 160 mL. Such a small difference is not important. If it does make a difference, then round down.
America should join the 21st-century and _join the rest of the worl_d by going metric! It would make so much more sense.
(By the way, I am an American!!)
:-)
what kind of PB do you recommend for baking?
Hi Pamela, Thanks for your feedback! We have our system set up so that whenever we use a temperature, Fahrenheit or Celsius, the conversion auto-populates. It's true, this often leads to fussy numbers like 191 C -- we hope most of our users won't mind rounding up or down as needed! Really appreciate your perspective!
We used paddle all the way! That's just a funny angle, I think.
Regarding the comments about AP flour, this maybe true of supermarket brands, but high quality brands maintain the protein content to a +/- of .02%
Hi Pamela, I found a couple of resources that indicate it should be quite possible to get pastry flour, or at least a suitable low-gluten flour in Japan. The first link contains further links to suppliers, including some online stores.
http://illmakeitmyself.net/resources/guide-to-flour/
http://alittleshopintokyo.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/vocabulary-for-finding-baking.html
Ages ago in the comments on the Chefsteps buttermilk biscuits recipe, Grant mentioned that he always stocks salted butter for reasons of taste and the prevention of oxidation. He felt the only valid reason for using unsalted butter was for dietary restrictions. Chris was pro-salted butter as well. Good enough for me
I've never had a failure using the Tollhouse recipe.
I just made them and I thought it was too salty. I used kosher salt as mentioned.
Another thing about the cooling. Do I leave it on tray to cool or on a rack?
Cookies! So excited! Much appreciated, ChefSteps!
Hello fellow Asian Baker! Pastry Flour in Japanese is 薄力粉 [Hakurikiko] Usually used to make 洋菓子
I define bread flour with a protein representation of >=12%, pastry flour as 10-11 and cake flour <=10% - but I would like to hear the ChefStep percentages?
ChefStep loooooves salt in the sweet kitchen - although I do too, I normally half the amount of salt in any sweet recipe from here
Great recipe! And not to fork this already, but replacing the 300 g milk chocolate with 225 g white chocolate and 75 g raw chopped pistachios is oooooh so good!
This is a question I've had before, too. Something that would be helpful and, I imagine, easy would be a set of definitions for different 'types' of flour. Even more helpfully, you might include a conversion chart for how to blend flours to get the right protein content. E.g. I can't easily buy pastry flour locally, so I use a 1:2 blend of cake and AP to get what a couple of online sources have suggested is close to pastry flour. Other sources have suggested adding cornstarch to AP flour to get a desired blend. If all you have is bread flour, how can you get to AP, etc. This is probably basic recipe writing/scaling mechanics if you know your usual protein percentages - which, I don't.
These are really nice. I got the email notification for this recipe on the way home from work...and I had just enough pastry flour & chocolate to make these...as soon as I got home I whipped some up pre dinner, although in my excitement I forgot to reduce the flour content for the peanut butter addition, but they were still really nice. The sugar/salt balance is really good. Although I am interested...what was behind the 200g brown sugar vs 180g granulated sugar ... in my previous chocolate chip cookies I had used equal amounts...
According to "The Joy of Cooking" a US cookbook
I would really like a know a test protein content myself :)as a lot of flours purchased here do not advertise it, unless you buy from proper bakery supply store. In supermarket here in Australia we can get LIGHTHOUSE CAKE, BISCUIT AND PASTRY PLAIN FLOUR.
Which is claiming to be Cake and Pastry and Biscuit Flour...but I think it is leaning more towards US style pastry flour.
The one problem I have with this recipe, and to be honest to extends to all your recipes, is that you use 'American' ingredients. Pastry flour? What's the european equivalent? You ketchup recipe is the same, what is 'tomato paste'? I can buy tinned tomatoes, passata and tomato puree, plus real tomatoes.
Yeap I agree with John. you guys are giving a very inaccurate and broad statement about AP flour. I use King Arthur brand (available at my local grocery store) and I can trust the results are always predictable and consistent. On the other hand a supermarket brand "pastry" or "bread" flour can be unpredictable.
OTOH, the recipe looks awesome and might just make me try something than my trusty Alton Brown recipe that I've been using for 10 years and can make it blind! Oh, but I will be using dark chocolate not the milk stuff.
Although these look awesome, I think it's cruel and unusual punishment to post a cookie recipe during Passover! But come Saturday night...
American pastry flour = French Type 45 = German Type 405 = Italian 00
In the UK, tomato paste is referred to as puree or concentrate. it should be like a richly coloured dark paste. if it's liquidy, that's the wrong one. you might have a better chance at a specialty italian market or something.
Sorry Jacob!! Happy Passover!
Is the brown sugar essential? Or do you think I can use only granulated sugar? (i think it is the same issue as with the all-purpose flour.. which will ultimately change the consistency of the cookies) But maybe I am wrong...
Big success, good recipe. Result are perfect cookies. Made the variation with peanut butter.
Plan on making these cookies this weekend, and excited to see how they'll turn out! I am wondering though, because of the unpredictability of AP flour, what sorts of things would AP flour actually be ideal for?
Why does the salt "increase the apparent sweetness of the sugar?" I've always read that it does the opposite. See for example [1] on how each of the basic tastes suppresses the others. Cooks Illustrated also did a taste test where they made baked goods with and without salt, and tasters described the salt-free baked goods as lacking nuanced flavors, too sweet, saccharine. I can't link - no longer subscribed - but that seems the opposite of increasing apparent sweetness.
[1] http://sciencefare.org/2013/02/27/the-importance-of-taste-suppression-and-a-special-personal-request/
asking again about the peanut butter, I see someone else was wondering too. thanks!
personally...i loved the salt. but it's a matter of taste i guess.
typically a quick google search can find the variation for your locality.
While you could make it with granulated sugar, you would be sacrifcing awesomeness, as they mention in the article. It is very common for american style chocolate chip cookies to use the brown sugar / granulated sugar mix, for the reasons they mentioned in the post:
Sugar counts as a “wet” ingredient here because it dissolves during baking, contributing to the overall liquid content of the cookie. The acidic components in brown sugar (just sugar with molasses added back in) are essential to getting a rise in your cookies because they react with the baking soda to create air pockets. Granulated sugar lends essential crispness to the final product. Sugars can also impact the spread of a cookie—too much and you’ll have a flat, crunchy cookie, too little and you may end up with a tall, cakey cookie.
Granulated sugar ... I think will result in flatter/crispier cookie maybe.
Hakurikikom is usually translated as cake flour.
I really appreciate you letting me know about this site. It is really nice.
This place has some French and Italian flours: http://www.cuoca.com/products/list.php?category_id=11
This same site might have pastry flours too. I should do some more checking.
Well, of course, but if it was the reverse, what would you do? That is to say, a correct Celsius temperature but a wonky Fahrenheit one…? I say this with all due respect. And in the spirit of conversation.
;-)
Probably unsalted, using unsalted butter gives you better control since you can control it directly.
There's an America's Test Kitchen recipe where they brown the butter first (not sure if they add more butter later), did you consider that at all?
Hi!, As I was saying in my comment bellow, I made these and they were delicious! How would you adjust the recipe to make Ginger cookie. Would you replace the brown sugar with molasses and the chocolate with crystallize ginger?
Tried this and it turned out great!
I made the following changes:
I browned 1/3 of the butter and added it in the same step.
I used AP flour as I couldn't get pastry flour.
Browning the butter added a really good nutty flavour and the AP flour turned out alright as well.
The salt came on a little strong, I'd probably use 12g of kosher salt in the future rather than 15.
The compressing trick at the end really made the cookie so much more photogenic with a great texture to boot.
The recipe looks great. To the author/editor, there is one minor typo, where it says, 'Cakier cookies tend to have less better.." I think the last word should have been "butter."
SERIOUSLY!?!? Our pastry flour is same as Italian "00"? How many people here have spent $$$$$$ for imported "00" flour when we could have been using pastry flour (under $1.00/lb) from the bulk bins at local "natural foods" store?
Hey Edison, how did you get that volume on the cookie? Mine ended up tasting alright, but they turned out pretty flat...
Hey Malcolm, how did you get that volume on the cookie? Mine ended up tasting fine, but they turned out pretty flat...
Not sure how accurate that is. Pastry flour has a low protein content while Italian 00 flour has a high, strong protein content which is why 00 flour is best for pizza bases.
00 flour is the grind fineness. It can have high protein content, but only if it's specifically ground for pizza dough, and then it will be labelled for bread or pizza dough. In general, the 00 you'll find is used for pasta, and its protein content is 9% – 9.5%, and canadian/american pastry flour tends to be 9%-10%.
I know! I found it out when I was making homemade pasta a few years ago when I ended up a little short on flour for a recipe, and promptly stopped using the italian stuff, and never felt ANY difference in the pasta. There's a few different kinds of italian 00 but generally the stuff you get in canada is for pasta anyways, so it's not ideal for pizza crusts already. I haven't found a great substitute for italian 00 bread flour, unfortunately $$.
I think the answer to your question is in another page of Science Fare- http://sciencefare.org/2013/07/10/why-does-salt-make-almost-everything-taste-better/ The second section (how salt enhances some flavours) pretty much explains it. Interesting stuff.
Thanks, Daniel.
Hi Jennifer. I have been scrolling through the comments, wondering if anyone had the same salt overload thoughts as I have. This was a fun recipe to create, and I always will weigh versus measure, whenever the numbers are provided. I chilled the dough, and when forming the dough for baking, I tasted just a drop of the dough. The salt level was overpowering for me, and I chucked the full amount of dough into the trash. 15 g. of Kosher salt (in this case Diamond brand), equates to 2 1/2 tsps. of table salt. In retrospect I should have figured this out for myself. There is something that calls to me still, so I will indeed make another rendition. I will use 7 grams of the Diamond Kosher salt this time. I did write to ChefSteps just to see if there might have been a typo, and have never written them before. I wonder if I will get a response. Thank you for your comments.
Love the idea. I did 200g Ghirardelli white chocolate chips and about 125g (freshly) toasted pecans with the peanut butter variation. They were pretty darn good, and I don't normally care for pecans in my chocolate chip cookies.
I completely understand and agree what you are saying, but wanted to throw out that my home oven allows me to set it to 191°C exactly. I just dial it in on a digital keypad. I recently upgraded my pellet smoker to allow the temperature to be set in 1° increments as well. (Also, I know I'm in the minority here, but thought it would be fun to throw it out. I'm an American as well, Texan to be exact, and would lobby to switch to metric any day of the week.
Mine as well. Flatter than a pancake😎
