The Chocolate Chip Cookie Debate Part 1
Thank you to the many-many-many of you who took the time to talk me through my heartache. I can’t even begin to tell you how special your insight and comments are. Really. I read every single word and I am endlessly touched by your openness and honesty. You’ve all touched my heart and it has worked wonders to help me through a bit of a rough patch. I can’t thank you enough.
In the past two days I’ve been bake in the kitchen (in something other than pajamas) where I belong.
Today I bring you the Chocolate Chip Cookie Debate. My question to you is simple. What makes a better chocolate chip cookie: melted butter or softened and creamed butter? Does it make a difference?
I think I make old school chocolate chip cookies. You know what I’m talking about. Cream the butter with the sugar, add eggs and vanilla extract and then the dry ingredients. Dollop onto a cookie sheet, throw them in the oven and sometimes you end up with completely flat and crisp cookies. One remedy to the flat cookie conundrum is to chill the dough before you bake off cookies. That really helps. But melted butter?
Let’s discuss.
Update: Look what’s in the NY Times today! A whole article about the perfect chocolate chip cookie. There is much to discuss! Judging from all your comments so far, this might be a week long series. We’ll get to the bottom of this and find the perfect cookie. I promise. And… it’s a good thing I stocked up on chocolate! Thanks Alanna and Kevin for the link!
Part one of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Debate is a testing of the melted butter chocolate chip cookie. The recipe is from Alton Brown. In addition to the melted butter, this recipe calls for bread flour (more gluten strength and protein) instead of all-purpose flour, and a much larger proportion of brown sugar to white sugar, milk and an egg yolk.
Madness? Perhaps. But the result is a solid, yet somehow light and moist chocolate chip cookie. It’s packed with sweet brown sugar flavor, and really a delight!
This cookie was far from the flattened, crispy, somewhat disappointing chocolate chip cookies I made when I was just kid standing on my tip toes to reach the counter. This recipe creates a tall, proud and perfectly soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie.
How do you feel about melted butter and bread flour in chocolate chip cookies? How do you think the creamed butter and all-purpose flour will hold up? This is serious friends. Dead serious.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from Alton Brown
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Cookies, Recipes, Tips and Tricks |
61 Responses to “The Chocolate Chip Cookie Debate Part 1”
Leave a Reply
Great to know you’re feeling better, Joy!
Joy, these cookies look marvelous! I love soft choc chip cookies.
For chocolate chip cookies, I always go to a Martha Stewart recipe I found years ago in her magazine (for a brief, maddening moment, I was a subscriber) that calls for creaming the sugar and butter. And let me tell you, this makes the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever had…and I made a batch of them to try to cheer me up recently. Baking is always so therapeutic.
i still go for the creaming of the butter.
i think the reason why the creamed butter version flattens because the butter only gets to melt inside the oven thus it makes the cookie flat. hmmm…
Ahhh…Chocolate chip cookies. A topic near and dear to my heart…this is my type of debate!
I’ve been eyeing a couple of chocolate chip recipes to try out soon. Firstly, there’s the whole Levain Bakery phenomena that I just became aware of. No, I haven’t tried them yet, but they sound dreamy…forget dinner and just give me the scone sized cookie, crispy and caramelized on the outside, soft and melted with a heart of goo on the inside. So I found this “Copycat Levain Bakery Throw Down Cookie” recipe and I’m so keen to see how it lives up to the hype. Have you tried the Levain cookie?
Then there’s Elinor Klivans’ “chocolate chip-stuffed cookies”. Isn’t the name itself droolworthy? Two disks of dough cradling a chocolatey heart of goo. I must make these soon…!
I have never tried melted butter chocolate chip cookies. But you’ve really touched my heart with this one. I am a chocolate chip cookie FREAK! On my birthday, I always get a free dessert at a local coffee shop and I always choose the choc chip cookie. And they always try to talk me into something more extravagant, like turtle cheesecake or tiramisu…nope, just the cookie please! I think this is also my next project.
Ev
I’ve seen people use browned butter too. With older recipes, I’ve started using salted butter — because that’s what they were developed for.
I just read your last post and I hope you’re filling better and finding some confort in all those comments and in your pajama! Baking is a good therapy I think…
Anyway, I love Alton and I love CCC (who doesn’t?) but I’ve never made his cookies. I’ve made CCC with bread flour before and the result was very very good! They get puffy and crunchy outside and chewy inside. I’ve tried the same recipe with AP flour and they also get good but a bit more cakey. I found the recipe for them on cookiemadness.com and then made experiments myself with it. I’ve even used instant yeast and those were my favorites! But what I think is that CCC are like steak, one like them rare, other medium rare, or well-done… With the cookies everybody had their favourites, so there’s no way of finding “the best”, just the best for you. Keep the experiments I love reading them.
I’ve never made cookies with melted butter and bread flour. Yours look awesome though. I do love a recipe that has a packet of instant pudding in it. They come out soft and delicious every time. Here’s the recipe: http://beantownbaker.blogspot.com/2007/09/new-favorite-chocolate-chip-cookie.html
I use creamed softened butter for my favorite recipe. It didn’t originally call for that, but one time I tried it with non melted butter and sweet mother the cookies became an absolute staple in our house. Now they are the only recipe I will use.
Joy - this is my daughter and son’s favorite recipe. They were forever searching for the perfect “soft” cookie. I, on the other hand, enjoy a crispier cookie. I make the soft cookies so that I won’t eat as many. My daughter made these cookies a few weeks ago and they were as crispy as a toll house cookie, despite having followed the recipe. I think the only explanation is that she overcooked them. It’s imperative that you take them out of the oven just when they’re starting to get golden colored otherwise they’re overdone.
The chocolate chip recipe I’ve been using for a few years is similar to this, except the bread flour and they cook at a much lower temperature. I do find chilling the dough makes all the difference with the melted butter in the dough.
Your cookies look delicious, and I can’t wait to see the next installment of the debate- maybe I can give creamed butter cookies a try!
I’m glad you’re feeling better. Baking always helps me.
To be honest, when I first started reading my mind rejected the idea of using melted butter in a chocolate chip cookie. But now I’m thinking I have to try these cookies. They look fabulous and I’m insanely curious about a light cookie made with melted butter and bread flour.
Funny you should mention this. Today’s food article in the NY Times is all about chocolate chip cookies. I found the historical piece of it interesting, but I’m even more interested to hear your thoughts on their recipe advice of chilling the dough for 36 hours.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html
Love to get your input!
And so glad to hear that you’re feeling better.
I too make the old school cookies, sometimes resuliting in the ‘flattened and disappointing’ cookie. (I always manage to eat them, regardless). I’ll have to try the melted butter and bread flour–perhaps that will be next week’s cookie. Glad you are doing better!
Your cookies look scrumptious! I have a recipe that I use that calls for half melted and browned butter and half softened. The browned butter is perfect touch. I will have to try this recipe and compare!
Hi Joy, Glad you see you back at the helm of the mixer and the camera! Keep your chin up. Tomorrow’s my birthday and I think I’ve found the perfect dessert for my party. I ‘ll let you know how they turn out. Thanks for sharing your beautiful recipes, images and insight.
I recently had some cookies (Alice Medrich recipe, I think) that were made by melting the butter and the sugar together…it created an almost caramel-y effect, and they were some of the best cookies I’ve had.
These look delicious! I might have to try them soon. I’m going to have about 20 different kinds of flour in my apartment, but that’s OK, right? I usually make the basic recipe — either follow the chocolate chip bag, or use Mrs. Fields cookie book recipe. I tend to bake them MUCH less than I’m supposed to tho so they end up being so chewy and delicous.
Wow look at debate you sparked Joy! I think its safe to say that we all love cookies and that playing around with the different techniques results in yummy rewards. I have done both methods, melting butter and simple creaming, and both worked well. I made a one bowl cookie recipe from Jill O’Connor’s book that was stellar. The cookies were a little crispier but they also reminded me of little clouds because they had a nice puffy center. I enjoy Dorie’ recipe too. I want to try a more fluffy cookie recipe, although I do prefer a thinner and carmel-y cookie.
I tend to stay “old school” when I bake chocolate chip cookies, but add a bunch more chocolate than called for (sometimes I even mix chips, chunks + mini chips for an added ‘wow’ factor). A few years back (after discovering my love for chocolate + cinnamon) I decided to add cinnamon and now have a new favorite…Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re moist, gooey and oh so addictive! They’re my family’s absolute favorite cookie and I seem to get requests all year long. They also improve with age and tend to taste better on day 2 & 3 (if they last that long!)
I’ve always preferred melting my butter and using half white sugar, half brown sugar. It seems like anytime I’ve used a recipe that calls for creaming the butter and sugar, I get a crispy cookie - which I hate! However, its possible I’ve always just picked the wrong recipes - I’m sure there are plenty of CCC recipes out there that use creamed butter and don’t result in a crispy cookie; I just haven’t stumbled on it yet. I vote melted butter all the way!
Very interesting recipe…the cookies does look delicious!
I’m ol’school about it.
My chocolate chip cookie recipe is the one my mom used, the chocolate dot cookie recipe from an old Chatelaine cookbook. They have brown sugar and white sugar creamed with butter. And it’s true, they sometimes flatten. Maybe I’m just nostalgic, but I like ‘em like that, and I kinda like the element of surprise- oOooo! what kind of cookies are they gonna be this time?. Actually a few months ago I made them at work- the butter got waaaaayy too soft, and when they baked, they flattened completely, and the sugar caramelized. But the end result was pretty much chocolate florentines.Thinking back on it, I seem to remember I may have mis-measured the flour. Oops!
When I make them at home I tend to make a double batch, roll all the dough into balls and freeze them on a flat tray to be moved into a freezer bake once frozen. Then when I bake them (which is whenever I want a few fresh cookies), I add a couple minutes to the baking time, but otherwise bake as per usual. The cookies don’t flatten out, and stay chewy/gooey in the middle.
As soon as I saw the title of your post I immediately thought of Alton Brown’s recipe (”The Chewy”) from his Chocolate Chip Cookie show. It is hands-down my **favorite** chocolate chip cookie recipe. I add more chips than what the recipe calls for (I add 50% more). This recipe is the whole reason I bought a scoop for my cookie dough. Now I wonder how I lived without that thing!
i made some great cookies with melted butter - chewy and soft. delicious. these look amazing, but since we don’t have bread flour here in india, i can’t try it!
gorgeous photos!
Given my immoderate, unseemly love for chocolate-chip cookies, may I vote for . . . all of the above?
This may sound like madness to all of you but my favorite choco chip cookies are made with…margarine. I almost cringe typing it. As for creaming vs. melting, I’m not sure what the method is, I don’t make them myself and I almost don’t want to ask for the recipe and spoil the magic!
Those look delicious! I’m going to have to try that recipe. I’ve never really paid attention to the state of butter…I actually usually use margarine. No real reason, just what we’ve always had around. I think I may have to start paying attention to the type of ingredient I’m using.
Hello! Just thought I’d tell you I’ve really enjoyed reading your bloggy! I just came across it today and I think its great! Definitely a bookmarker!
Another chocolate chip cookie recipe to try! They look great!
I’m glad to see that you are feeling a bit better. I truly love this AB recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies. When I first tried it, I knew I would have to stop myself from going nuts with it. I must have made it about 6 times within a 4 week period. I really love the texture of this cookie and it comes together nicely. By the way, I have your blog in my reader and I always enjoy seeing what you are up to. HANG IN THERE!!
My favorite chocolate chip cookie is thick, crunchy on the outside, and almost undercooked in the middle-and it usually has pecans in it. (No cake-like cookies allowed!)
I have only made chocolate cookies one time with melted butter. I used a version of an Otis Spunkmeyer copycat recipe. My sister still talks about them as the best she’s ever had. While trying to find the recipe just now online I came across this–it has a ton of different chocolate chip cookie recipes. http://www.chocolatemonthclub.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookies.htm
Also, I glanced at various versions of the Otis Spunkmeyer recipe, and they all list shortening as an ingredient. I don’t remember using this, but I also only made these once about 6 years ago.
Oh, and I LOVE your blog. Thank you for being such an inspiring baker.
Thanks for sharing the AB recipe using melted butter. I’m going to try it ’cause I’m always on the lookout for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I have made a cookie using bread flour (but not melted butter) that creates a really nice soft cookie like the kind you get at the Cookie specialty shops in malls. I’m happy with my creaming the butter method, but I’d like to be ecstatic! So I’m also going to try the Torres 36 hour chilling the dough technique! Great post!
AHhh my favorite topic chocolate chip cookies, well since im just a beginner i try and experiment with different recipes in order to get the perfect cookie, so i tried a martha stewart recipe for a double chocolate mnm cookie (it has got m n m;s instead of chocolate chips) (found here:http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=ad104679e8b0f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&rsc=header_3&autonomy_kw=M+n+M+cookies ) but the problem is they turned out to sticky or fudgy and not in a good way! maybe i had done something wrong since i tried them a while back but by looking at the ingredients can any1 guess what the error might be?
P.s. I found this article on martha Chocolate Chip cookie 101, you might wanna check it out: http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=ae832cfa6862f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&rsc=header_8&autonomy_kw=Double+chocolate+Chip+cookie
Hi there,
I stumbled across your blog and was reading all of these posts and I thought I would share what I use in chocolate chip cookies. A few years ago I found a really great recipe that creams the butter and sugar (3/4 brown and 1/4 white) and then you add vanilla pudding mix. Just the mix, not prepared. The instant kind. It makes the cookies so very soft and they NEVER GET FLAT. When they bake they rise up stay very puffy. They take a full 11-12 minutes to bake. The outside and the inside both stay very soft. You could leave the cookies out on the counter uncovered for days and they would remain soft. I know because I tested one out, just to see if they would get crunchy or stale. They didn’t. I know it sounds unconventional, but hey, I’m an unconventional kind of girl.
BTW, I absolutely LOVE!!! your blog. I look foward to the next read.
Mmm. Chocolate chip cookies. My son went through a pahse of searching for the perfect one. He forgot to add the butter, and ended up adding it melted at the end, instead of the old school, creamed with sugar. They were delicious.
Personally, I don’t like soft chocolate chip cookies, I like them crunchy on the edges and somewhat chewy in the middle, thus the flat version.
Some people swear that adding a tablespoon rather than the usual teaspoon of vanilla is a must also.
Looking forward to the rest of the debate. . .
Heather
Which Alton Brown recipe is this?? We love his Chewy CCC recipe. There is also a Crunchy (we like ours chewy though).
I have not made a comparison, but my first impulse would direct me towards creamed butter over melted. Either way though, I’d eat all of those cookies
I’m pretty sure I could handle either/or, and I’m up for anyone sending me samples so I could make a choice… :o)
I personally always add a little extra flour than what the recipes call for, and then I chill the dough, so the melted or the creamed ultimately become pretty much the same in the end..
I’ve gotta say, though, that the image of the cookies in the bowl is delectable!
Cindy
http://www.jbkpottery.com
Sister,
I think I’ll make these cookies for Karl and Jenny. They’ll love them! Thank you for the advice.
Martha Stewart’s Cookie of the Day for Friday, July 11:
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies (with creamed butter)
My attempts at chocolate chip cookies have until now left something to be desired, leaving me to wonder if I’m just crap at making cookies? Silly, considering I’ve aced a whole number of more complicated baked goods, like genoise, meringue buttercream and brioche. I think I’ll be trying your recipe, because I’m tired of flat chocolate chip cookies!
I’ve always been one to use softened and creamed butter. The NY Times article though has me wanted to let the dough rest now for at least 24 hours - the problem is if I have uncooked cookie dough in my fridge for 24 hours it will be eaten by the time I want to bake the cookies!
Creamed butter is my preferred method. I’m an old school girl.
Funny the NYT article came out shortly after you wrote your blog. Two of my friends forwarded the article to me! I’m looking forward to trying the overnight refrigeration. And see if I can get that perfect, chewy CCC.
I’ve always creamed my butter and sugar, and have also taken to adding a bunch of cinnamon and ginger, and a bit of cloves and nutmeg to my recipe. It makes for a very fall-smelling and tasting cookie. But that’s an easy addition, it’s getting the right texture that’s tricky. Somehow my brother has perfected it, and he just follows the Tollhouse recipe. I don’t know if he beats the butter sugar and eggs for longer or takes them out of the oven just under done and leaves them to finish cooking on the pan. He must just have that magic tough.
The one trick I found helps is patting down the dough after I’ve dropped it on the pan, just to spread them out a bit. I find the cookies will spread out anyway, and this just makes for more even rising and cooking.
Looking forward to trying and reading about more pointers to make that perfect CCC!
Very nice. I’d like to feel the chocolate fill in that cookie in my mouth.
http://www.foodista.com/2008/06/12/mexican-hot-chocolate/
I always used to cream the butter with the sugar. I’d always read about people melting the butter to produce a chewier cookie, but I thought it would make it more greasy. Not so! It produced a thicker, chewy cookie, just the kind you find at the freshly baked cookie stores. I also agree with the refrigerating the dough for a while, that seemed to help too.
I’ve tried Alton’s chewy recipe and it was better than the Toll House one, but, honestly, the uncooked dough wins- hands down.
First, love your blog. Bookmarking it right now.
Second, love this debate. I’ve had this debate internally (haha) for awhile now. That may be my next mission, after finding the perfect birthday cupcake for a gang of two year olds! Maybe I’ll find that here.
I personally am a lover of the thick and chewy, not thin & crispy or puffy & cakey, cookie. I’ve tested out a bunch of recipes, but for some reason hadn’t come across Alton’s “Chewy”. It’s definitely the next cookie on my list.
To melt or not to melt, this is one of baking’s finest questions. It all depends on my mood. Do I want crisp or cakey, am I feeling lazy or inspired to be in the kitchen all day? They are both great, but when I am feeling like being in my PJs all day I go for the creamed butter.
BTW I’ve been married for almost 17 years and I still haven’t figured this love thing out. Butter is much easier!
[…] The Cookie Debate Part One I mentioned that the NY Times had serendipitously printed an article about the perfect chocolate chip […]
Thanks for your comments everyone!
I really enjoyed the melted butter recipe, but have decided that it all depends on my mood. The melted butter is no better or worse than the creamed butter method. Just depends on whether you want a tall, chewy cookie, or a butter, flat cookie. It’s a cookie either way, right?
Thanks for the pudding suggestion too. I’ve never had pudding in cookies. I think I fear that the pudding taste will overwhelm the cookie. No?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The debate tumbles on!
My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is from a combination of Cooks Illustrated and Allrecipes sources, and it uses melted butter and all-purpose flour. It would seem to me that bread flour would make a cookie tougher than desired–too much strength, maybe?
-Chris
http://smellslikedessert.blogspot.com/
[…] Times. First it was Serious Eats, then Joy the Baker began her Chocolate Chip Cookie Debate - Part 1 & Part 2. I was […]
[…] The Chewy, with melted butter and bread flour, from Alton Brown. […]
Actually, the best recipe I have found (creamed butter) involved the inclusion of oatmeal (made into flour with a blender or food-processor) substituted for half the flour (experiment though because I think I found a better ratio- I just can’t recall). Also, I always drop the pan on the top of the over door before placing the cookies to cool (it seems to kill the cakeyness)–I like mine very chewey. One point though I can not stress enough. The actual baking process, in my opinion, is 70% of the game. In a hurry I use store bought dough and get fabulous cookies (I feel guilty pawning them off since guests always rave about my secret recipe). The store bought dough cookies still taste great because I do not over-cook, use either parchment or an insulated baking sheet, and my oven temp in dead on (and I drop the cookie sheet as above). Everyone seems to overcook and get these thin, burnt edge, hockey-puck cakey in the center things (worse than vending machine cookies!).
[…] As I’ve said, there’s plenty out there already: Leite’s article itself and also this and this and this. But after one buttery, bendy, chocolate-studded bite, I knew I had to add my […]
I finally baked Alton Brown’s Choc Chip Cookies with the melted butter and I am blown away! In this case, a cookie is NOT just a cookie. This cookie bridges the gap between my husband and I: he likes crunchy, I like chewy. For the longest time I thought that we would never be able to enjoy a cookie together. But now, thanks to Alton Brown and Joy the Baker, we can set aside our cookie differences and enjoy one…together…crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside…choc chip cookie goodness. Thanks!
[…] points in their 36 hour resting period. Her posts are entitled The Chocolate Chip Cookie Debate Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, after which she decides that sometimes a cookie is just a cookie and […]