LadyM, I have a baller from-scratch gingerbread recipe I can PM you if you'd like
Yes indeedy, please PM it or post it!
I may try the other recipe too . . . I'll post pictures next time I make cookies.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
Chocolate chip cookies are the barometer of a stranger. When my last roommate refused my move in day gift of a plate of chocolate chip cookies...I knew we were in for a rough ride.
You'll eat my cookies and you're like it or you're on THE LIST.
Even if I do just make the Nestle recipe from right off the back of the chocolate chip wrapper.
I think that really just makes me more frightened for the well-being of living things among aforementioned herd
back to cookies:
so I actually know the guy who invented The Dipr
and I have to admit, for a goofy gimmicky kitchen gadget I actually do use it for dipping cookies, because an Oreo is really intended to be a sodden milk delivery device
LadyM, I have a baller from-scratch gingerbread recipe I can PM you if you'd like
Yes indeedy, please PM it or post it!
I may try the other recipe too . . . I'll post pictures next time I make cookies.
It is long and long-winded but I might just post it in spoilers:
for gingerbread: 6 cups flour; I use 4c whole wheat and reserve 2c of all-purpose for kneading and flouring rolling pin, etc
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups shortening or bacon fat or lard
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp ground allspice
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 8-oz container sour cream
2 eggs
For icing: 3 Tbsp meringue powder (available where cake decorating supplies are sold)
3 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
4-6 Tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp almond extract
(for icing, entire quantity is needed only if constructing a gingerbread house.)
dough: Measure 4 cups flour and remaining ingredients into large mixing bowl. With mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Knead in remaining 2 cups flour by hand to make a soft dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until dough is not sticky and is of easy kneading consistency. Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
To roll dough: Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Working with no more than half a batch at a time on a lightly floured work surface with lightly floured hands, knead dough into a flattened ball shape. For gingerbread houses, to ensure even wall thickness: On a greased and floured 17" x 14" cookie sheet, with lightly floured rolling pin roll dough to 3/16" or 1/8" thickness. You can use dowels of the same size at either side of the dough on the cookie sheet to help create a uniform thickness. For easy rolling, place cookie sheet on a damp cloth to prevent it from slipping. Make pattern pieces from oaktag or use commercial cookie cutters. Use a sharp knife or cookie cutters to cut the outlines of your pieces, using the dough as efficiently as possible. Remove scraps and reserve for rerolling.)
For traditional cookies, cut them from the rolled out dough and place on lightly greased and floured cookie sheet, or a cookie sheet lined with parchment.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (Place cookie sheet in the refrigerator if there is room while the oven preheats.) Bake until golden brown and very firm when lightly touched with your finger. Remove cookie sheet from oven and cool on wire rack 5 minutes. Carefully remove the baked pieces from cookie sheet and place on wire rack to cool completely.
Note: If you need to do some trimming do it while the cookie dough is warm out of the oven.
You may need several batches of dough to make a large project, but this dough makes a LOT of gingerbread. If you're just using it for cookies, one batch makes several dozen-- perfect for gifts and parties. They bake to a crisp and light finish and are not as dense as a traditional gingerbread; I attribute this to the lack of molasses or corn syrup. In the event that you need to make more than this dough recipe calls for, make it in single batches, don't double.
for icing: Put dry ingredients together, add almond extract and half the water, then add more water as needed. The consistency of the icing should be thick, where a knife can be drawn through it leaving a clean path...but not so thick it won’t go through an icing tip. Load into a pastry bag and pipe icing onto cooled cookies. The icing can also be used as a mortar for a gingerbread house.
What is a cookie? Like, where is the line drawn between cookies and other desserts?
If you pull an Elki and make some monster cookie in a frying pan that's probably bigger than your head, can you still call it a cookie? Clearly it's not a 'small cake' anymore.
Are these cookies?
I mean, sure, the package says 'cookie' right on it, but it's mostly marshmallow! It's far closer to a smor than a cookie, right?
Surely these aren't cookies, right?
I mean, it's literally just a chocolate wafer cut into a round shape with some minty filling. And yet these are girl guide cookies! The holy of holy among cookiedom.
When someone asks you, "Would you like a cookie?" what image immediately comes to mind? To quote Dinesh D'Souza (because I never get to do that), what is the ness of cookie? The cookieness?
it's pretty shocking to learn that there are people who don't know that baking powder and baking soda are different things
or mix up the salt and the sugar
gavindel has created a new beast
The soda and powder I can understand since you can sub in one for the other in some recipes.
Salt and sugar I have a harder time fathoming given the amount of sugar you tend to use baking. You usually need more than you can get from a sugar jar and hence need to go to the pantry and misread a box of salt as a bag of sugar.
it's pretty shocking to learn that there are people who don't know that baking powder and baking soda are different things
or mix up the salt and the sugar
gavindel has created a new beast
The soda and powder I can understand since you can sub in one for the other in some recipes.
Salt and sugar I have a harder time fathoming given the amount of sugar you tend to use baking. You usually need more than you can get from a sugar jar and hence need to go to the pantry and misread a box of salt as a bag of sugar.
My mother-in-law once made a beautiful pavlova accidentally substituting salt for sugar.
I would have thought that chemically impossible.
0
JuliusCaptain of Serenityon my shipRegistered Userregular
Also, anything with white chocolate or macadamia nuts are verboten. Bleagh.
Although I actually have to agree that most store-bought white chocolate cookies are abominations, if you're making your own with quality white chocolate they're pretty delicious.
chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks? Ermagawd
I just don't like white chocolate, or almond bark, or marzipan for that matter. At all. Nor do I care for any nut-like substance that isn't peanut, cashew, or almond.
Now, a chocolate cookie with little marshmallows in the dough? Mmmmmaghaghagh . . . [/homer]
Sorry to double post like this, but I tried that once. The marshmallow's melted, and it just didn't turn out very well.
Try freezing the mashmallows before putting them in the dough. Maybe it keeps it from melting too much.
I have a cool recipe for chocolate chip s'more cookies that I got from a local newspaper. It has graham cracker crumbs in the dough. The annoying (and awesome) part is you bake them for just enough so they start to set and you take them out and really quickly press in mini marshmellow and chunks of chocolate bars. Then you put them back in to finish.
They're super messy and goopy and awesome. But, they're insanely rich. I used Hershey's chocolate when I made them. Next time I want to use a better chocolate, probably Cadbury's, but I'm afraid it'll give me diabetes.
I could be wrong but I thought higher quality chocolate has less sugar, not more. Higher cacao content means more chocolate flavor, so you don't have to cover the slack with sugar.
Up to a point, of course (i.e. highest quality chocolate =/= baking chocolate)
I could be wrong but I thought higher quality chocolate has less sugar, not more. Higher cacao content means more chocolate flavor, so you don't have to cover the slack with sugar.
Up to a point, of course (i.e. highest quality chocolate =/= baking chocolate)
You're equating higher quality with dark chocolate. While you may need higher quality chocolate for good dark chocolate, you can still use it to make milk chocolate.
When someone asks you, "Would you like a cookie?" what image immediately comes to mind? To quote Dinesh D'Souza (because I never get to do that), what is the ness of cookie? The cookieness?
From the experiential data, I think there is a case to be made of consistency. Whereas the other diminuative of cakes, "cupcakes," require the use of paper cups to keep the item cohesive until consumption, cookies are self-contained. Although they can have wide varieties of consistency, e.g.: 'cake' cookies vs. drop cookies vs. biscotti, there appears to be an objective requirement that they be portable and cohesive without the help of some outside agent to at least some degree.
Thinking about it from the other direction, neither cakes or cupcakes are crispy (in their nominal state), which lends more evidence to the consistency criterion. Or maybe not so much consistency as gross portability. When one asks, "Would you like a cookie," I believe there is a universal idea of ease of service. A piece of cake requires plates and forks at the least, but cake that has been parsed into small units and then covered in chocolate which has been properly tempered to set rigidly can, I think, be rightly referred to as a cookie.
(This is like a dream come true for me: Epistemology and Cookies, together at last)
it's pretty shocking to learn that there are people who don't know that baking powder and baking soda are different things
or mix up the salt and the sugar
gavindel has created a new beast
The soda and powder I can understand since you can sub in one for the other in some recipes.
Salt and sugar I have a harder time fathoming given the amount of sugar you tend to use baking. You usually need more than you can get from a sugar jar and hence need to go to the pantry and misread a box of salt as a bag of sugar.
My mother-in-law once made a beautiful pavlova accidentally substituting salt for sugar.
ANZAC biscuits are the best. I found some in London recently and that made it a great day
Freedom for the Northern Isles!
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
I just made cookies, and they were delicious. When you guys make your own batches, how many do you usually make and or eat? I made nine, ate nine, froze the rest. Mm, thousand calories of sugar coma...
I just made cookies, and they were delicious. When you guys make your own batches, how many do you usually make and or eat? I made nine, ate nine, froze the rest. Mm, thousand calories of sugar coma...
Usually I can get around 36 per batch, depending on the size of the portioner I use.
I just made cookies, and they were delicious. When you guys make your own batches, how many do you usually make and or eat? I made nine, ate nine, froze the rest. Mm, thousand calories of sugar coma...
Usually I can get around 36 per batch, depending on the size of the portioner I use.
Really depends on the recipe, but this is about what I end up with some. Usually about two trays plus an extra one for the leftovers. I use a melon baller / ice cream scoop thing to portion the drop cookies out since it has that neat scraper thing and makes them much more uniform.
I just made these Caramel Brownies for valentine's day and they were awesome. Not a cookie, but brownies are still sweet at least.
I just made cookies, and they were delicious. When you guys make your own batches, how many do you usually make and or eat? I made nine, ate nine, froze the rest. Mm, thousand calories of sugar coma...
36-40 seems to be the norm for a full batch (test recipes I'm not sure of will get smaller batches). I usually eat less than 7 myself though since I'm usually making them for a gathering.
TehSlothHit Or MissI Guess They Never Miss, HuhRegistered Userregular
Interesting, just tried a small batch of chocolate chip with a bit of chili powder, definitely need more, but I also definitely need eggs. Could've sworn I had one, started making them, realized I didn't and googled substitutions. 1/4 cup baking soda was the first one I found that I had, which seemed weird because it's dry, but I went with it. Definitely turned out weird, but still delicious. Cooked them for about 10 minutes which I thought would do the trick but they weren't browning at all, gave them another five and still no, pulled one to check it out and it was good and got and done, but was just really dry, presumably becuase of the lack of egg. It's got a powdery consitency but a great taste, so I'm happy enough. Also, did with all almond flour, splenda, and split coconut oil/butter so it's totally healthy.... right....
1 cup softened unsalted butter (I usually use less than recommended)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp almond extract (sub vanilla if you must)
1 tsp orange extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp ground cardamom
I sometimes add a little more salt, and I like to garnish with white chocolate and if I have time a little orange zest
it is basically the Wilton sugar cookie recipe but made to be not the blandest thing ever
(I also use whole wheat flour because I'm sassy like that; if you haven't used it before try cutting it 50/50 with all-purpose)
I don't know how applicable this question is given that you use whole wheat flour and I'm sticking with all purpose, but kind of texture do you get out of this? I started doing some test batches using some other recipes I have and so far have been getting cookies that are almost cake like inside.
1 cup softened unsalted butter (I usually use less than recommended)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp almond extract (sub vanilla if you must)
1 tsp orange extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp ground cardamom
I sometimes add a little more salt, and I like to garnish with white chocolate and if I have time a little orange zest
it is basically the Wilton sugar cookie recipe but made to be not the blandest thing ever
(I also use whole wheat flour because I'm sassy like that; if you haven't used it before try cutting it 50/50 with all-purpose)
I don't know how applicable this question is given that you use whole wheat flour and I'm sticking with all purpose, but kind of texture do you get out of this? I started doing some test batches using some other recipes I have and so far have been getting cookies that are almost cake like inside.
This looks like basically a modified Toll House cookie recipe (which there's nothing wrong with that, the toll house recipe is the standard cookie recipe for a good reason), but with 1 less egg and a bit extra flour, and an extra tsp of powder to make up for the loss of leavening from the egg. If you want it to be less cake-y just add another egg and subtract a tsp of baking powder and you'll have a thicker textured cookie.
The main difference for whole wheat flour is that it can hold a bit more water, if you're switching a recipe from white to whole wheat you'd typically increase the water by 10-20% to get the same crumb.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
1 cup softened unsalted butter (I usually use less than recommended)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp almond extract (sub vanilla if you must)
1 tsp orange extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp ground cardamom
I sometimes add a little more salt, and I like to garnish with white chocolate and if I have time a little orange zest
it is basically the Wilton sugar cookie recipe but made to be not the blandest thing ever
(I also use whole wheat flour because I'm sassy like that; if you haven't used it before try cutting it 50/50 with all-purpose)
I don't know how applicable this question is given that you use whole wheat flour and I'm sticking with all purpose, but kind of texture do you get out of this? I started doing some test batches using some other recipes I have and so far have been getting cookies that are almost cake like inside.
I roll mine no thicker than 3/16" and sometimes as thin as 1/8" whether they're apf or whole wheat. Thinner cookies bake quicker and crisper. This recipe should not be used for "ball" cookies; they don't spread. Sugar cookies in general work best when rolled out and cut into shape, so that might be the issue with being too cakey in other recipes too.
I also strongly recommend parchment for baking; thin cookies really benefit from this even if you have non-stick pans.
Thank you for covering the sciency part of this, @Kana - - the recipe is a mod of the Wilton baking tools company recipe included with their products, but, again, modded for flavor
I think the liquid balance for this one works for either variety of flour, tbh, but yeah, you could swap an egg for a portion of the baking powder.
My mother has this one crazy recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies that she came up with by accident and initially thought ruined. They flattened out far too much and were quite thin.
With some trepidation we tried them but turned out to be wonderfully chewy and some of the sugar caramelized so they were slightly crispy as well and oh-so-sweet.
This looks like basically a modified Toll House cookie recipe (which there's nothing wrong with that, the toll house recipe is the standard cookie recipe for a good reason), but with 1 less egg and a bit extra flour, and an extra tsp of powder to make up for the loss of leavening from the egg. If you want it to be less cake-y just add another egg and subtract a tsp of baking powder and you'll have a thicker textured cookie.
So I figure I should actually lay down the recipe I've been doing so far to get further analysis.
1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick ( 1/2 cup I believe) butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon cardamom pods which are then husked and ground
1/4 baking soda (I may be off on this. It's very much an experiment in progress)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon rose water
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
In the future, I'll likely replace the orange water with orange extract since it doesn't seem to have enough flavor. The base recipe used the water though.
If I roll these out thin, they get crispy and have a texture that's been compared to a biscotti. I did another batch that an extra egg and they were moister inside but lost the crispness and were almost chewy. Ideally I'd like to have the outsides crispy but still have something less dry in the center. The effect of an entire extra egg was too much though.
The thing I immediately notice that dough recipe is that it's a bit moist looking. 2 tablespoons of water + 1 tsp of extract, + butter's water content, for only 1 1/4 cups flour. Probably easy to get a bit gluten-y.
Since I haven't tried these guys myself, these are just kind of shots in the dark, but things that would be worth trying:
- add a half tsp salt
- replace the flour with pastry flour, this'll have less gluten and you'll get a crisper cookie. (like half cake + half ap makes a pretty good pastry flour)
- replace the butter with shortening and the orange blossom water with orange zest, this'll drop the water content of the cookie
- independent of anything else, rolling the cookie in sugar before baking would create a crispier outside while the inside stayed moist
- if you don't want to change the flour, make sure you're mixing everything else well before adding the flour, and only work it until it's just combined.
- Are you happy with the brown sugar? It would be easy to change to all white granulated to help the orange and rose flavors stand out.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Okay, I'm making some cookies for this weekend's yard sale (Chocolate chips and my special Cleos (peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips and reese's pieces)) and I thought I'd ask, what's you guys stance on freezing the dough before hand? I've often made the dough then placed it in the refrigerator for anywhere from 12 hours to three days before baking, as I have something of a belief that this improves the flavor by letting the sugars do....certain things, and allow the flour to absorb all the wetworks in it's own sweet time.
What do you guys say about this?
0
JuliusCaptain of Serenityon my shipRegistered Userregular
Okay, I'm making some cookies for this weekend's yard sale (Chocolate chips and my special Cleos (peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips and reese's pieces)) and I thought I'd ask, what's you guys stance on freezing the dough before hand? I've often made the dough then placed it in the refrigerator for anywhere from 12 hours to three days before baking, as I have something of a belief that this improves the flavor by letting the sugars do....certain things, and allow the flour to absorb all the wetworks in it's own sweet time.
What do you guys say about this?
I have no idea why you would do this. Surely freezing things stops processes? A refrigerator is could understand, though I doubt it adds much, but a freezer?
In terms of improving cookie consistency/moisture/flavor/etc. I've heard that refrigerating the dough for a day or two helps (I haven't done a side-by-side comparison, though it certainly doesn't hurt).
Freezing dough is fine for longer-term storage if you don't want to bake all your cookies at once, but I don't think you'll get the benefits (if any) that you'd get by just resting it in the fridge for a day.
Posts
Especially chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, and shortbread.
Yes indeedy, please PM it or post it!
I may try the other recipe too . . . I'll post pictures next time I make cookies.
You'll eat my cookies and you're like it or you're on THE LIST.
Even if I do just make the Nestle recipe from right off the back of the chocolate chip wrapper.
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I can't help you there
that there is a literacy problem
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or mix up the salt and the sugar
gavindel has created a new beast
like, salt is a thing that has a distinct flavor and texture that is p unmistakeable
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I'll have you know that in the unwashed herds of comp sci students where I dwell, I'm basically Iron Chef.
back to cookies:
so I actually know the guy who invented The Dipr
and I have to admit, for a goofy gimmicky kitchen gadget I actually do use it for dipping cookies, because an Oreo is really intended to be a sodden milk delivery device
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It is long and long-winded but I might just post it in spoilers:
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups shortening or bacon fat or lard
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp ground allspice
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 8-oz container sour cream
2 eggs
For icing: 3 Tbsp meringue powder (available where cake decorating supplies are sold)
3 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
4-6 Tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp almond extract
(for icing, entire quantity is needed only if constructing a gingerbread house.)
dough: Measure 4 cups flour and remaining ingredients into large mixing bowl. With mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Knead in remaining 2 cups flour by hand to make a soft dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until dough is not sticky and is of easy kneading consistency. Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
To roll dough: Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Working with no more than half a batch at a time on a lightly floured work surface with lightly floured hands, knead dough into a flattened ball shape. For gingerbread houses, to ensure even wall thickness: On a greased and floured 17" x 14" cookie sheet, with lightly floured rolling pin roll dough to 3/16" or 1/8" thickness. You can use dowels of the same size at either side of the dough on the cookie sheet to help create a uniform thickness. For easy rolling, place cookie sheet on a damp cloth to prevent it from slipping. Make pattern pieces from oaktag or use commercial cookie cutters. Use a sharp knife or cookie cutters to cut the outlines of your pieces, using the dough as efficiently as possible. Remove scraps and reserve for rerolling.)
For traditional cookies, cut them from the rolled out dough and place on lightly greased and floured cookie sheet, or a cookie sheet lined with parchment.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (Place cookie sheet in the refrigerator if there is room while the oven preheats.) Bake until golden brown and very firm when lightly touched with your finger. Remove cookie sheet from oven and cool on wire rack 5 minutes. Carefully remove the baked pieces from cookie sheet and place on wire rack to cool completely.
Note: If you need to do some trimming do it while the cookie dough is warm out of the oven.
You may need several batches of dough to make a large project, but this dough makes a LOT of gingerbread. If you're just using it for cookies, one batch makes several dozen-- perfect for gifts and parties. They bake to a crisp and light finish and are not as dense as a traditional gingerbread; I attribute this to the lack of molasses or corn syrup. In the event that you need to make more than this dough recipe calls for, make it in single batches, don't double.
for icing: Put dry ingredients together, add almond extract and half the water, then add more water as needed. The consistency of the icing should be thick, where a knife can be drawn through it leaving a clean path...but not so thick it won’t go through an icing tip. Load into a pastry bag and pipe icing onto cooled cookies. The icing can also be used as a mortar for a gingerbread house.
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Girl asks for recipe of cookies.
Cookies give warm feels insides, even if I not eat them.
Fucking cookies how do they work.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
It's all cake to me.
The soda and powder I can understand since you can sub in one for the other in some recipes.
Salt and sugar I have a harder time fathoming given the amount of sugar you tend to use baking. You usually need more than you can get from a sugar jar and hence need to go to the pantry and misread a box of salt as a bag of sugar.
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My mother-in-law once made a beautiful pavlova accidentally substituting salt for sugar.
I would have thought that chemically impossible.
Try freezing the mashmallows before putting them in the dough. Maybe it keeps it from melting too much.
They're super messy and goopy and awesome. But, they're insanely rich. I used Hershey's chocolate when I made them. Next time I want to use a better chocolate, probably Cadbury's, but I'm afraid it'll give me diabetes.
Up to a point, of course (i.e. highest quality chocolate =/= baking chocolate)
You're equating higher quality with dark chocolate. While you may need higher quality chocolate for good dark chocolate, you can still use it to make milk chocolate.
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From the experiential data, I think there is a case to be made of consistency. Whereas the other diminuative of cakes, "cupcakes," require the use of paper cups to keep the item cohesive until consumption, cookies are self-contained. Although they can have wide varieties of consistency, e.g.: 'cake' cookies vs. drop cookies vs. biscotti, there appears to be an objective requirement that they be portable and cohesive without the help of some outside agent to at least some degree.
Thinking about it from the other direction, neither cakes or cupcakes are crispy (in their nominal state), which lends more evidence to the consistency criterion. Or maybe not so much consistency as gross portability. When one asks, "Would you like a cookie," I believe there is a universal idea of ease of service. A piece of cake requires plates and forks at the least, but cake that has been parsed into small units and then covered in chocolate which has been properly tempered to set rigidly can, I think, be rightly referred to as a cookie.
(This is like a dream come true for me: Epistemology and Cookies, together at last)
This sounds like a hate crime against flavor
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Usually I can get around 36 per batch, depending on the size of the portioner I use.
Really depends on the recipe, but this is about what I end up with some. Usually about two trays plus an extra one for the leftovers. I use a melon baller / ice cream scoop thing to portion the drop cookies out since it has that neat scraper thing and makes them much more uniform.
I just made these Caramel Brownies for valentine's day and they were awesome. Not a cookie, but brownies are still sweet at least.
36-40 seems to be the norm for a full batch (test recipes I'm not sure of will get smaller batches). I usually eat less than 7 myself though since I'm usually making them for a gathering.
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twitch.tv/tehsloth
I don't know how applicable this question is given that you use whole wheat flour and I'm sticking with all purpose, but kind of texture do you get out of this? I started doing some test batches using some other recipes I have and so far have been getting cookies that are almost cake like inside.
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This looks like basically a modified Toll House cookie recipe (which there's nothing wrong with that, the toll house recipe is the standard cookie recipe for a good reason), but with 1 less egg and a bit extra flour, and an extra tsp of powder to make up for the loss of leavening from the egg. If you want it to be less cake-y just add another egg and subtract a tsp of baking powder and you'll have a thicker textured cookie.
The main difference for whole wheat flour is that it can hold a bit more water, if you're switching a recipe from white to whole wheat you'd typically increase the water by 10-20% to get the same crumb.
I roll mine no thicker than 3/16" and sometimes as thin as 1/8" whether they're apf or whole wheat. Thinner cookies bake quicker and crisper. This recipe should not be used for "ball" cookies; they don't spread. Sugar cookies in general work best when rolled out and cut into shape, so that might be the issue with being too cakey in other recipes too.
I also strongly recommend parchment for baking; thin cookies really benefit from this even if you have non-stick pans.
Thank you for covering the sciency part of this, @Kana - - the recipe is a mod of the Wilton baking tools company recipe included with their products, but, again, modded for flavor
I think the liquid balance for this one works for either variety of flour, tbh, but yeah, you could swap an egg for a portion of the baking powder.
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Can you provide us with this recipe?
So I figure I should actually lay down the recipe I've been doing so far to get further analysis.
1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick ( 1/2 cup I believe) butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon cardamom pods which are then husked and ground
1/4 baking soda (I may be off on this. It's very much an experiment in progress)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon rose water
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
In the future, I'll likely replace the orange water with orange extract since it doesn't seem to have enough flavor. The base recipe used the water though.
If I roll these out thin, they get crispy and have a texture that's been compared to a biscotti. I did another batch that an extra egg and they were moister inside but lost the crispness and were almost chewy. Ideally I'd like to have the outsides crispy but still have something less dry in the center. The effect of an entire extra egg was too much though.
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What temperature are you baking at?
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Since I haven't tried these guys myself, these are just kind of shots in the dark, but things that would be worth trying:
- add a half tsp salt
- replace the flour with pastry flour, this'll have less gluten and you'll get a crisper cookie. (like half cake + half ap makes a pretty good pastry flour)
- replace the butter with shortening and the orange blossom water with orange zest, this'll drop the water content of the cookie
- independent of anything else, rolling the cookie in sugar before baking would create a crispier outside while the inside stayed moist
- if you don't want to change the flour, make sure you're mixing everything else well before adding the flour, and only work it until it's just combined.
- Are you happy with the brown sugar? It would be easy to change to all white granulated to help the orange and rose flavors stand out.
Okay, I'm making some cookies for this weekend's yard sale (Chocolate chips and my special Cleos (peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips and reese's pieces)) and I thought I'd ask, what's you guys stance on freezing the dough before hand? I've often made the dough then placed it in the refrigerator for anywhere from 12 hours to three days before baking, as I have something of a belief that this improves the flavor by letting the sugars do....certain things, and allow the flour to absorb all the wetworks in it's own sweet time.
What do you guys say about this?
I have no idea why you would do this. Surely freezing things stops processes? A refrigerator is could understand, though I doubt it adds much, but a freezer?
Freezing dough is fine for longer-term storage if you don't want to bake all your cookies at once, but I don't think you'll get the benefits (if any) that you'd get by just resting it in the fridge for a day.