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bedlamsbardSo, as anyone who might have been on Twitter yesterday saw, I had an appalling recipe failure yesterday. From Alton Brown, no less, if you can believe that. Alton Brown! I am shocked. It was the chocolate chip cookie #10 from I'm Just Here for More Food, and marks the second supposedly really easy cookie that I can just not make come out. (I can do fancy or complex baking fine (tiramisu, I have not made you in so long! And now I am too much of a snob to use cake mix, so I will do you completely from scratch!); I just lack the ability to make regular oatmeal cookies or, apparently, plain chocolate chip. Since I don't actually like plain chocolate chip cookies -- I prefer chocolate chip cookies made with all whole wheat flour -- this wouldn't normally be a problem, but I am making them for New York.)
Alton Brown's recipe has pretty standard ingredients -- all purpose unbleached flour, butter, brown and white sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs, chocolate chips, vanilla extract, the usual. The most unusual thing was that he asked for melted and slightly cooled butter rather than room temperature butter. My feelings on melted butter are fairly strong, so I probably should have taken that as a sign, but I dutifully melted a stick of unsalted butter on the oven and set it aside to cool. (The only change I made to the recipe was to halve it, as for one we were running out of flour and for another, it was going elsewhere.) He also calls for egg yolks rather than whole eggs, so I separated an egg (recipe called for two, and I think I probably should have just used two, that, or not separated it), and beat the yolk, then added all the wet ingredients together, which, on the bright side, was one of the easier times I've ever had adding wet ingredients to melted butter. Another unusual point was that while most recipes that call for the sugar to be added to the dry ingredients when dealing with melted butter (when creaming butter it gets added to the wet), Alton Brown asked for it to be added to the wet. When mixed in with the dry, it all came together beautifully, but then I tried to add the chocolate chips.
The dough would not take the chocolate chips. Yeah, that's right, you heard me, the cookie dough would not accept the chocolate chips. I started out trying to shove them in with a spoon after moving them to the cookie sheet, then finally gave up on my usual method and switched to rolling them into balls with my hands, which was the only way I was able to shove the chocolate chips into them. I angrily shoved them into the oven, pre-heated to 375, and dutifully set the timer to the fifteen minute mark.
Does fifteen minutes seem long to you? Well, it definitely was; the first batch came out burned. And Alton Brown had recommended 15-17 minutes! (I am googling now to see what other people have said, and everything that's turned up recommends 11-12, so I can only assume that I have an earlier edition of the book or something.) The second batch when only went in for 11 minutes or so, and while less burned, the result was the same: cookies that were too hard to eat, not all soft and chewy. From what I could tell, they actually tasted pretty good, but they're impossible to eat. My mother suggests breaking them up and sticking them in vanilla ice cream, which seems like the only good option.
Did I mention that I couldn't get all the chocolate chips I added -- maybe 3/4 cup -- to fold into the dough, even with my pushing and shoving? Well, the remaining quarter-cup or so had to be washed clean of dough and set aside to dry, to be reused in today's attempt to master the chocolate chip cookie. (Although I think I'm going to fall back on something fancy and make Dorie Greenspan's world peace cookies, which have chocolate chips in them and thus count for New York's cookie package.)
Have I mentioned I'm annoyed? And I didn't even make a whole batch of whole wheat chocolate chip, so I can't eat those and sulk. That half-batch has been set aside for shipment to New York.
Alton Brown's recipe has pretty standard ingredients -- all purpose unbleached flour, butter, brown and white sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs, chocolate chips, vanilla extract, the usual. The most unusual thing was that he asked for melted and slightly cooled butter rather than room temperature butter. My feelings on melted butter are fairly strong, so I probably should have taken that as a sign, but I dutifully melted a stick of unsalted butter on the oven and set it aside to cool. (The only change I made to the recipe was to halve it, as for one we were running out of flour and for another, it was going elsewhere.) He also calls for egg yolks rather than whole eggs, so I separated an egg (recipe called for two, and I think I probably should have just used two, that, or not separated it), and beat the yolk, then added all the wet ingredients together, which, on the bright side, was one of the easier times I've ever had adding wet ingredients to melted butter. Another unusual point was that while most recipes that call for the sugar to be added to the dry ingredients when dealing with melted butter (when creaming butter it gets added to the wet), Alton Brown asked for it to be added to the wet. When mixed in with the dry, it all came together beautifully, but then I tried to add the chocolate chips.
The dough would not take the chocolate chips. Yeah, that's right, you heard me, the cookie dough would not accept the chocolate chips. I started out trying to shove them in with a spoon after moving them to the cookie sheet, then finally gave up on my usual method and switched to rolling them into balls with my hands, which was the only way I was able to shove the chocolate chips into them. I angrily shoved them into the oven, pre-heated to 375, and dutifully set the timer to the fifteen minute mark.
Does fifteen minutes seem long to you? Well, it definitely was; the first batch came out burned. And Alton Brown had recommended 15-17 minutes! (I am googling now to see what other people have said, and everything that's turned up recommends 11-12, so I can only assume that I have an earlier edition of the book or something.) The second batch when only went in for 11 minutes or so, and while less burned, the result was the same: cookies that were too hard to eat, not all soft and chewy. From what I could tell, they actually tasted pretty good, but they're impossible to eat. My mother suggests breaking them up and sticking them in vanilla ice cream, which seems like the only good option.
Did I mention that I couldn't get all the chocolate chips I added -- maybe 3/4 cup -- to fold into the dough, even with my pushing and shoving? Well, the remaining quarter-cup or so had to be washed clean of dough and set aside to dry, to be reused in today's attempt to master the chocolate chip cookie. (Although I think I'm going to fall back on something fancy and make Dorie Greenspan's world peace cookies, which have chocolate chips in them and thus count for New York's cookie package.)
Have I mentioned I'm annoyed? And I didn't even make a whole batch of whole wheat chocolate chip, so I can't eat those and sulk. That half-batch has been set aside for shipment to New York.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-26 01:05 am (UTC)I have probably the absolute easiest and most fail-proof chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. My brother can make it and he can't make eggs.
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
Combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, cream your butter, then add the two sugars and the vanilla. (I always add more than it tells me to, I'm a sucker for real vanilla). Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Slowly add the dry crap. Then add the chocolate chips. If you haven't eaten them all. Drop by spoonfuls (or disherfuls) onto cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes at 375°.
Never, ever, fails.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-26 06:22 pm (UTC)Oooh, that looks pretty simple. I was thinking of just using the whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe I usually use (I don't like plain chocolate chip cookies; the whole wheat adds a wonderful nuttiness), just subbing all-purpose for the whole wheat.