A few weeks ago I raved about how I found the perfect base recipe for chocolate chip cookies. This week I decided to experiment a little. The recipe is really similar to Alton Brown's "Chewy". One of the main differences is that Alton Brown uses bread flour. Since I had a bag of bread flour laying around (from the last time I made the chewy), I decided to try my cookie recipe again, but this time using bread flour.
These cookies were a huge hit. Everyone that had them said they tasted like they were from a fancy bakery. I added in some mini m&m's to make them a little more colorful and festive, but those are optional.
These cookies were great on day one, but they seemed to get better and better on the second day. One of main differences between bread flour and AP flour is that bread flour contains more gulten. This gives rise to a chewier cookie. And a chewier cookie is always a plus in my book. :)
Recipe - Makes 20 - 30 cookies
Adapted from AllRecipes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup mini m&m's (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, egg yolk, and milk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
- Stir in the chocolate chips and m&m's by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Hi, I'm glad I stumbled on your blog as I searched for some lemon bar alternatives. I'm from SC too! We should share town tips. For example, I get my sugar at Nature's Pantry--bags of dried cane juice. It's delicious b/c you don't have that chemically processed taste that even Domino white sugar has. And also, what eggs do you use? The Amish eggs are great, but so pricey, so we use Eggland's Best from Giant.
ReplyDeleteHi. I was really excited about this recipe. I followed your instructions to a T, but my cookies came out really thin and crispy. They spread out incredibly on the cookie sheet. The batter once mixed up looked much more wet than your picture above. I didn't have quite enough chocolate chips as you said, however I don't think that makes as big of a difference with the base batter. Just wondering your thoughts... Thanks!
ReplyDeleteShawna - What a small world! I've never heard of Nature's Pantry... I'll have to check it out. I buy most of my ingredients from Giant. I buy the same exact eggs. Where do you buy your produce? I've been buying mine at Giant but sometimes I'm disappointed.
ReplyDeleteKarla - That's very surprising to hear! Mine barely spread at all... in fact I had to squish down the later batches before they went into the oven because I wanted flatter cookies. I've used this recipe a bunch and never really had problems with it... maybe it's a weather thing? Try nixing the milk next time (or maybe just adding 1 or 2 tbls) and chilling the batter before it goes into the oven. But please, please, please don't give up on the recipe because it's my hands down favorite!
I was quite surprised about them spreading out so much as well. I will reduce the amount of milk and chill the batter! I'm not giving up! They look too good to give up on! Don't worry! It was a little confusing though as to why they didn't turn out. I used skim milk too.. would that have made a difference?
ReplyDeleteKarla, I just made these cookies this morning and I had the exact problem (I used skim milk as well)! My batter was very soft, spread out a LOT in the oven and came out thin and crispy. I did chill the rest of the dough about 20 minutes after the first batch came out of the oven, and they came out the same way. They still taste good though!
ReplyDeleteNext time I'll try cutting out the milk too (or maybe try whole milk?). :)
I'm so surprised to hear about all the spreading! The reason why I love this recipe so much is that it retains its shape and doesn't spread. Definitely try cutting out the milk. I don't know if the skim milk would make a difference or not, I used 2%.
ReplyDeletehmmmm my batter got to the same consistency, but my cookies spread quite a bit as well...hmmmm =T
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE m & m cookies and these look amazing! Definitely going to have to make these. Such lovely pictures!
ReplyDeleteThese cookies ended up very tasty but really flat and quite huge! I had the same spreading problem others have had. Next time, I'll cream my sugars with cold butter, omit the milk, add a little more flour, and chill the batter. It's worth the extra effort because the taste is perfection! Thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteI just made this cookies (without the m&m's). Unfortunatly they look more like the ones of Subway.
ReplyDeleteI baked them just for five minutes, so now they are really moist and soft. Like ones of this sandwich-restaurant. ;-)
So how can I make them so "compact" and "chewy" like yours?
Hi Tatjana - I am about to take on a cookie experiment. Since a few people have also made these cookies and had problems with spreading, I'm going to make the recipe again. I'm gonna make half the dough as the recipe is originally written and then make the other half with no milk. I'll see if this helps the spreading problems. I'll be sure to post a blog and let everyone know what the verdict is!
ReplyDeleteIt's just my consideration but maybe the butter is too much. When I looked into the oven the surface of the cookies melted very quickly - and so they spread.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's really the fault of the butter.
If I only use 1/4 cup of butter and a 1/4 cup of milk then the dough would be not as silky but maybe the cookies would stay in shape.
I'll try it again and then I'll post my experience. :-)
Ok I'm back. It took me a couple weeks, but I made these again this afternoon.
ReplyDelete-I mixed up the batter per the recipe minus the milk. Baked 1 cookie and it still spread quite a bit.
-I added 1/4 c. bread flour and 1/2 Tbsp skim milk because it just looked too dry.
-I chilled the batter about 15 mins or so.
-Baked the cookies 15-16 minutes and they came out great!! They did not spread as they did before and they are somewhat crispy on the outside & edges, but chewy in the middle!
I just remember my mom always saying to add a little flour to make cookies 'fluffier' so I thought maybe if I did they wouldn't spread. Also Alton uses 2.25c flour in his chewy recipe.
Let me know if you try them again with & without milk. This seemed to work for me! I can send you picts if you want. Let me know.
Hi Karla,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you finally had some success. I actually experimented with the recipe this week. I made some with no milk, some with the 1/4c., and some with 2 tablespoons. I took pictures of all of them. I'm gonna do a new post as soon as a get a few minutes! The ones with the 2 tablespoons of milk that chilled for a while in the fridge came out the best!
I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago and have made it four times already. I can't get enough of it! It truly is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWonderful Recipe. I just made it with my 2 and a hald year olds and the cookies turned out perfectly. I did omit the 1/4 cup of milk though and only used 2 tbsp. Thanks for such a great recipe.
ReplyDeleteI made two batches of these because they were solo good!!!! I made the first batch for a bake sale and they went after about five minutes!!!M
ReplyDelete