Chewier
How do you show “chewy” in a photograph? I dunno. You’ll just have to trust me on this. The chewy chocolate chip cookie is probably the one I received the most requests for, and for good reason. Lots of chewing means more time to savor the chocolate-y, buttery, brown sugary glory that is Wakefield’s masterpiece.
This one goes pretty much by the numbers (i.e. like the printed instructions) save for one important thing, which we’ll get into in a minute. Unlike the thin cookie preparation, for the chewy it really helps to have a stand mixer to provide elbow grease. Start with softened, but not too-soft butter, since we’ll want to take advantage of everything the creaming method has to offer.
Add that to your sugars in the bowl of your mixer…
…and beat on medium-high until truly light and fluffy.
Now then I’ll add my eggs and beat to incorporate…
…but before I turn the mixer off, I’ll pretend the phone just rang in grandma’s kitchen and its her gossipy neighbor Gladys, who wants to know what that car was doing parked in front of the Rumplemeyer house all night the night before. Everybody knows Mr. Rumplemeyer has been out of town on a business trip all week. Could Madge be having an affair? She’s always giving that new bag boy down at the Phips Grocery those flirty looks. Oh no, Gladys, you’re imagining things again. I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for — my cookies! They’ve been mixing for five whole minutes!
Actually I won’t let the mixer run that long. More like a minute on medium high. Which will do what exactly? There’s flour in that bowl…there’s water in there too (thanks to the eggs). Add agitation — a good deal of it — and you get what? Gluten formation, exactly. And activated gluten makes things chewy. So I’ll just beat the tar out of this dough…
…then add my chips, spoon the dough onto the baking sheets as per usual, and bake as directed, 9-11 minutes at 375. That’s really all there is to it.
I’ve found that another good trick if you want a really soft cookie, is to mix in a box of instant vanilla pudding right after creaming the butter and sugar.
Nice, Erika! Thanks!
Where is the ingredients
Hey Joya, just go to the left-side menu and look under “Miscellaneous Desserts & Cookies.” You’ll find an entry for chocolate chip cookies with everything you need! Cheers,
– Joe
Another good thing is to make your own brown sugar, the freshness and taste make a big difference and it’s really easy to do! That, and when I form the balls of dough, I make one larger one, split it in half, and put them on the sheet jagged edges up. It provides a nice rustic look to the finished cookie.
And, a little sprinkling of fleur de sel on top is just heaven.
That reminds me of Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookie, Ellen. If you haven’t tried those, you really, really should. Thanks for the great tips!
– Joe
i’d tried this recipe twice . The cookies are delicious but the shape was nothing like the pictures. Whatever the shapes of the dough got drop onto the baking sheet, they came out very much like that, ie: they dough didn’t flat out. Would you know why? Too much flour? I followed your recipe to the T. Thx.
Hi Maggie!
There can be so many variables with chocolate chip cookies. It can be frustrating!
To get the cookies flatter, there are a few things you can do. Make sure the dough is room temperature, and make sure the oven isn’t running hot. A little less flour would help, also an extra egg yolk. Basically anything the would encourage the batter to run a little more before the eggs set up. On which note, you could also try warming the butter nearly to melting point. Let me know how it goes!
– Joe
Thanks for taking the time to explain what causes the different outcomes when preparing cookies. I’ve always wondered why they turn out different one day to the next. There is so much information in your articles on Cookies i’m going to have to read them all a few times
Hi Joe
Just made a version of your chewier CCCs and took most of them to work (well… I had to test just a few of them… y’know how it is) where they received rave reviews. I tweaked the recipe just a bit by leaving out the vanilla (I hate vanilla as I think it is so over used in baking today, and guess what.. no body missed it), doubled up on the brown sugar and halved the white sugar (I made 1.5 times the recipe due to a deficit in the CC department). Thanks for the great article on how to get the version of CCCs you like.
Hey Vivien!
Thanks very much for getting back to me on this and I’m totally with you: there’s no substitute for rigorous quality control.
Cheers,
– Joe