When I began my search for a new favourite chocolate chip cookies, I thought I was looking for a soft and cakey cookie that is thick and puffy. In most of the recipes I researched, they either fall into the soft & chewy or thin & crispy style. I’m pretty sure thin & crispy is not what I want so I quickly focused my attention to recipes claiming to create soft & chewy cookies. Although delicious, most did not satisfy my craving for chocolate chip cookies (except for BAKED’s version). Silly me, I was looking all the wrong places. I cannot think of a more reliable authority on cookies than Martha Stewart. After reading her Chocolate Chip Cookie 101 article, it all made sense. It’s not all about soft & chewy or thin & crispy! Cakey cookie apparently is a category all on its own. No wonder all those chewy cookies I baked fell short of my expectation.
I wasted no time baking up a batch of her Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies. With less sugar and less butter compare to most recipes I tried this week, the texture and appearance are spot on. Every cookie stood tall and thick, packed with dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chunks. Every bite was soft and tender making them perfect dunkers. The dough did not require any resting or chilling so I can quickly whip up a batch whenever the fancy strikes. My only quip is the lack of butterscotch flavour. There is barely any brown sugar in the recipe, just enough to keep the cookies moist without imparting much flavour. As a result, the cookie lacks just a bit of depth in flavour. However, this make the dough a wonderful canvas to incorporate all kinds of add-ins, not limiting to dark chocolate chips! I would love to use this dough to make mini M&M cookies.
Each cookie uses one tablespoon of dough and it bakes up to a 2 1/2 inch diameter perfect round with plenty of height. I absolutely love the cakey texture and these cookies are sturdy. I imagine they would travel well even in a parcel. Its sturdiness also makes them wonderful candidate for a bit of chocolate enrobing to bring them over the top. I would dip the bottom or perhaps half of a cookie in tempered dark chocolate to add an extra layer of chocolate decadence.
I like the relatively small size of these cookies. They are easy to gift wrap into pretty little gifts. However, I do wonder how the dough behaves if I increase the size of each cookie to two tablespoons of dough. Would it spread to even thickness in the oven? How big would the cookie be? What about even baking? This recipe is a good starting point for further experimentation.
With this cakey chocolate chip cookie, I conclude Chocolate Chip Cookie Week. It’s been a fun exercise to see the same set of ingredients can produce so many different result by changing the ratios or baking method. I learned some valuable lessons in cookie baking that I’m sure will guide me down the road for troubleshooting or recipe development. As much as I love chocolate chip cookies, I’m a little tired of them by now as do my tasters. I’m ready to return to the savoury side of kitchen. Spring is in the air and I have salads on my mind.
