The Science Behind Baking The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie
Everyone has their own idea of what constitutes the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Some like them soft and gooey while others like them thin and crispy (blasphemy). Now there’s one recipe to rule them all.
The following recommendations are provided by Ozy, who pulled insights from multiple sources including Kendra Nyberg, a bioengineering grad student named who co-taught a class at UCLA called Science and Food, Tess Arias, an expert chef and cooking author who discusses the science on her website Handle the Heat.
In addition, there is a fascinating Ted Talk that explains the science of cookie making and provides a great explanation of how it all works.
Ozy based their recommendations on the original Nestle Toll House Cookie recipe. Because, lets face it, it’s the de facto standard for making the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
So based upon your specific tastes and preferences, try these modifications to suit your specific tastes.
1. Gooey
Add an additional 2 cups of flour
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2. Crispy, but a soft center
Add 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
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3. Deep tan color
Your oven needs to be higher than 356°F (based upon the Ted video) so set it at 360°F (instead of the 350°F from the original recipe)
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4. Store bought taste
Swap in shortening for butter. Arias cautions that you can lose some flavor when you do this, so she suggests doing 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening.
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5. Thick
Freeze the batter for 30-60 minutes before you bake.
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6. Butterscotch flavor
Replace the regular and brown sugar with all brown sugar (so 3/4 cup brown sugar)
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7. More flavor
Arias recommends chilling the dough for 24 hours
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For additional yummy recommendations, check out the full Ozy article.
[h/t: Country Living]