Cookies!!!!

Have you ever wondered why chocolate chip cookies can be chewy, crisp, soft, flat, thick, cakey, greasy, bland, flavorful, moist, or crumbly?

Today, we are going to talk about a lot of different versions of a basic cookie recipe and see what ingredients make the difference.

Loosely based on the blog Handle the Heat and The Kitchn....

Basic Control Recipe

142 grams all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
113 grams room-temperature, unsalted butter
75 grams granulated sugar
75 grams lightly-packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, room temperature
170 grams chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until combined, scraping the bowl down as needed. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
If time permits, wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. This allows the dough to “marinate” and makes the cookies thicker, chewier, and more flavorful. Let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.
Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon-sized balls using a large cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

BAKING POWDER

Remove baking soda from recipe and use 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. This produces results that are more cakey and puffed while baking.

BAKING POWDER AND BAKING SODA

Use 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. This produces results that are crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, with a good amount of spread.

MORE FLOUR

Increase the flour to 2 cups (250 grams) which creates a more crumbly dough and very little spread. The cookies are small, yet thick and relatively undercooked in the middle.

MELTED BUTTER

Replace the room temperature butter with melted and cooled butter. Instead of creaming the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, simply stir the butter and sugars together then let sit for 5 minutes, until the sugar is better absorbed by the butter. This produces flatter cookies that have a shiny, crackled top reminiscent of brownies. They are also more crisp at the edges.

ALL GRANULATED SUGAR

Use 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 grams) in this recipe which produced flat, white, chewy, and slightly crunchy cookies, but with little flavor. Since baking soda (called for in the control recipe) requires an acid (such as brown sugar) to react, these cookies fell very flat as you can see by the way the chocolate chips protrude.

ALL BROWN SUGAR

Use 3/4 cup (150 grams) packed light brown sugar in this recipe which produces thick, brown, and soft cookies with an intense butterscotch flavor. The original control recipe uses an even ratio of granulated and brown sugars. If you prefer your cookies to be flatter, chewier, or crisper, use more granulated sugar. If you prefer your cookies to be softer and thicker and have a pronounced butterscotch flavor, use more brown sugar.

24 HOUR CHILLED DOUGH

Use the control recipe but chill it in the fridge for about 24 hours before shaping and baking. This produces cookies that are slightly thicker, chewier, darker, and with a better depth of butterscotch flavor. If you have time, try chilling your next cookie dough for at least 24 hours, or up to 48 hours.

FATS MAKE A DIFFERENCE TOO!

ROOM-TEMPERATURE BUTTER

Appearance and texture: Golden brown, slightly crispy edges with lighter-colored, softer centers. The cookies are a bit crumbly with a small degree of chewiness. 
Flavor: Buttery (not surprising!) with flavor notes of toasted milk solids; not too sweet. 
Pros: Room temperature butter delivers the buttery, nostalgic taste of classic chocolate chip cookies, and it creates a range of textures that can please both crispy and soft cookie-lovers.  
Cons: It takes time to bring butter to room temperature, so you need to plan ahead.

BROWNED BUTTER

Appearance and texture: Evenly golden brown from edge to center; these cookies spread the least. The texture is pleasantly soft with only the very edges having a bit of crunch to them.  
Flavor: Rich and nutty; the other flavors present in the cookie (sweetness, saltiness, bitterness) taste more enhanced than in other versions.
Pros: The toasty aroma and deep flavors that brown butter imparts are unrivaled by any other fat that was tested.  
Cons: It takes time to brown the butter in advance and also to let it cool to room temperature before using. The cookies don’t spread very much or gain a lot of variability in texture from the edges to the center. (This could easily be remedied by adding about 2 tablespoons of water or milk to the dough at the end of mixing.) 

OLIVE OIL

Appearance and texture: Shiny, crackly top crust with the most amount of spread out of any of the tests. The cookies are a bit crunchy and homogenous in texture from edge to edge. Despite looking very appealing, this batch doesn't deliver the chewiness in chocolate chip cookies. 
Flavor: Tastes a bit sweeter and more floral than other tests with a subtle aftertaste of olive oil. 
Pros: The cracked appearance that olive oil imparts is unique and attractive. There’s the opportunity to experiment with different types of olive oil (both virgin and extra-virgin, as well as infused olive oil) to create a customized flavor. It’s also dairy-free.  
Cons: The soft dough doesn’t hold its shape until after it’s chilled, so waiting at least 30 minutes before scooping is a necessary step.  

COCONUT OIL

Appearance and texture: Lots of little cracks on the surface with a matte finish; low amount of spread. The cookies were cakey in the center with crunchier edges; slightly dry texture overall.  
Flavor:  The cookies had a slightly rancid, bitter flavor that came through at the end.
Pros: Coconut oil can be creamed like butter to create a light and fluffy base because it’s solid at room temperature. It can add subtle, pleasing coconut flavor as an additional tasting note to cookies, as long as you find coconut oil that tastes good to you. 
Cons: Coconut oil varies in flavor and can taste soapy; it also becomes rancid more readily than other kinds of fat.

Which one was your favorite?