While reading a blog that I adore a few days ago, I ran across a reference to The Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies in the Entire World and I'd be lying if that didn't make my heart skip a beat. I adore Alton Brown's recipe for The Chewy chocolate chip cookie and use it whenever I decide to make chocolate chip cookies; Alton's (yes, we ARE on a first name basis, thank you!) cookies are wonderfully chewy and have a fantastic flavor. That said, I'm always on the lookout for an even better cookie recipe ... really, who wouldn't be?
The two recipes share a very important common ingredient - brown sugar, which (according to Alton) is the reason for the chewiness. The molasses in the brown sugar offers that little bit of chew that we in our household love so much. (Crunch chocolate chips pale in comparison to a chewy one in our crew's opinion!). A key difference is the "Best Homemade" cookies use A/P flour while Alton's use bread flour and an additional egg yolk. One thing about the "Best Homemade" cookies recipe that caught my attention was a note about letting the dough rest in the fridge for at least an hour (pretty standard), but best if left in the fridge 24-36 hours. REALLY? Wow! I didn't have the willpower to try that last night, but will have to leave the dough to rest that long one day, just to compare how it changes the cookies.
Last night, I whipped out my handy-dandy Kitchen Aid mixer and whipped up a batch of the "Best Homemade" cookies. The dough was super easy to put together (always a perk) and the cookies had a very nice flavor. They were a bit crunchier than we had hoped for, but it wasn't over the top. I'm thinking of combining these recipes to see if I can get the best of both worlds. I like that Alton's dough is chewier but there was something about the flavor of the "Best Homemade" that really struck me (I think it has a higher vanilla content, which is what I'm picking up on.)
I'm now pondering combining the two recipes and throwing in my own touches to see if I can come up with an even better recipe. Stay tuned!
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| My "Best Homemade" Cookies |
1 comment:
I use the Better Homes and Gardens recipe and mine come out chewy every time. I think the reason is the shortening mixed with butter, as well as I tend to pull them from the oven before they're 100% done and cool them on a rack for about 10 min, then straight into tupperware. We are big fans of Alton around here, too!
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