The Cooks Illustrated "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie" Take 2
When these cookies came out in the May/June issue of Cooks Illustrated, you should have seen the excitement that spread like wildfire through the baking blog system. Everyone was abuzz with the cookie recipe that claimed perfection. When a couple of people were able to get posting rights from CI, it instantly hit Recipezaar and were posted proudly on blogs. Here is where I got the recipe, and since I did not change anything both times I made these, I feel better about sending you to the recipe on the blog of someone who got official permission from CI.
The interesting things about this cookie are two-fold: 1) you melt and brown the butter, and then toss in another chunk of butter into the hot butter, and this sizzling bubbly reaction occurs that results in a creamy, butterscotch-smelling, golden liquid, and 2) once you combine said butter with the sugars and eggs, you successively whisk (30 sec) and rest (3 min) the mixture three times, which gets you a caramel-brown, smooth satin before you add the dry ingredients. Both of these are stark departures from normal protocol.
The first time I made this cookie, I let them cool too long. (Translation: I fell asleep while they were cooling and didn't pack them up until the next morning.) The result was a tasty crunchy cookie with a hint of chewiness in the middle. Michael said he ate a cookie before going to bed himself and they were nice and chewy at that point.
My friends/guinea pigs liked them, although said they liked the recipe I had made just previous to this one better. The chocolate chip cookie they refer to is from the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook. The recipes in this book are AMAZING. Although that cookie is definitely worth posting about, as Alton Brown says, "...but that's another show." And I digress.
This time around, I made sure not to make the same mistake twice and are packing them away as soon as they are cool to keep the chewiness. And I'm not going to bed early this time.
Pretty cookie dough:
Cookies, Take 1 (picture taken from the first time I made these):
And Take 2 (from tonight):
We'll see how people like them tomorrow. For now, goodnight!
The interesting things about this cookie are two-fold: 1) you melt and brown the butter, and then toss in another chunk of butter into the hot butter, and this sizzling bubbly reaction occurs that results in a creamy, butterscotch-smelling, golden liquid, and 2) once you combine said butter with the sugars and eggs, you successively whisk (30 sec) and rest (3 min) the mixture three times, which gets you a caramel-brown, smooth satin before you add the dry ingredients. Both of these are stark departures from normal protocol.
The first time I made this cookie, I let them cool too long. (Translation: I fell asleep while they were cooling and didn't pack them up until the next morning.) The result was a tasty crunchy cookie with a hint of chewiness in the middle. Michael said he ate a cookie before going to bed himself and they were nice and chewy at that point.
My friends/guinea pigs liked them, although said they liked the recipe I had made just previous to this one better. The chocolate chip cookie they refer to is from the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook. The recipes in this book are AMAZING. Although that cookie is definitely worth posting about, as Alton Brown says, "...but that's another show." And I digress.
This time around, I made sure not to make the same mistake twice and are packing them away as soon as they are cool to keep the chewiness. And I'm not going to bed early this time.
Pretty cookie dough:
Cookies, Take 1 (picture taken from the first time I made these):
And Take 2 (from tonight):
We'll see how people like them tomorrow. For now, goodnight!
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