Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chapter 2

Coming back to Chocolate Chip Cookies, as promised and because, well - it's always good to come back to CCC. And because my brother's birthday is coming up and he's the kind of brother that you just want to make chocolate chip cookies for. When I was in college, he'd bake and mail cookies to me. Slightly crushed and more than slightly delicious they would arrive, to the oohs and ahhs of my roommates.

For these cookies, I'm falling back on a little cookie chemistry, and a bit of experimentation. My quest is that fat, crispy outside, gooey inside cookie that a I posted about a few weeks ago. A couple years ago, the New York Times had an article on Chocolate Chip Cookies (all the news that's fit to eat?). You can read it here. It's a bit history and a bit chemistry. The chemistry part is this - you get a better cookie if the dough rests for about 36 hours before you bake the cookie. I know, this is tough. Usually you make chocolate chip cookies because you really need to eat one Right Now. So bake a couple of them, and then let the remaining dough rest.

Why does this make a better cookie? The New York Times article describes it well. In a nutshell, the rest time lets the dough soak up the liquids (eggs), this makes for a firmer and drier dough and better cookie consistency.

For these cookies that are in process (aka aging in my freezer) I had an dough brainstorm that I'm experimenting with. While eating a Lumberjack (sadly the last of that frozen dough) the other night, I got thinking about the crispy outside, chewy inside perfection of this cookie and realized, 'hey, this is what I want for my chocolate chip cookies!' From that, I decided to follow the general Lumberjack ingredients and ratios, but apply those to a chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I substituted corn syrup for the molasses, and used all shortening and no butter. I want to establish some type of baseline that I can then adapt from with future batches. Ideally, I'll get to a point with more butter and less shortening, but I didn't want to try too many different things first time out.

The basic recipe I created is below. I haven't baked these yet, but will probably try a couple later today (this will only be at the 24 hour point of aging) and will report back on hopefully delicious results.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
1/2 c light brown sugar, packed.
1/2 c butter flavored Crisco (aka "fat sticks")
1/2 c light corn syrup
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz good quality dark chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli or Whole Foods 365 brand)
Optional
Turbinado or other coarse sugar for topping.
Kosher or other large flake salt for topping.

What to do
Cream together sugar and shortening in a stand mixer (or with hand mixer). Add the corn syrup and continue mixing, then add the espresso powder. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until all is well blended. A quick note about the espresso powder. First, I love instant espresso powder and look for every opportunity to use it. Second, I think corn syrup is sort of uninspired and flat tasting, so I wanted to pep up the dough a bit. This amount of powder gave the dough a nice added depth, but not a strong coffee flavor.

You can just see the espresso flecks in the dough

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, soda, and salt together. Slowly add to the wet ingredients. Dough will be on the dry side. Add chocolate chips and mix with a wooden spoon until all blended in. 

Wrap dough up well in plastic and age in refrigerator or freezer up to 36 hours.

Having not baked these yet, these instructions are not yet tested. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 (convection bake if you have that option). Scoop dough out into roughly walnut sized balls, and dip in the Turbindo sugar and then sprinkle with some sea salt (again the toppings are optional). Bake for 9-11 minutes (I think). Remove from oven and cool on racks.

I'll report back once I bake these and note any changes.