A Chocolate Chip Cookie Success (finally)
Let me start by asserting that Prantl’s Bakery in Shadyside has amazing chocolate chip cookies. When I was in grad school, the ECE Department was ordering an assortment of Prantl’s treats to inspire grad students to attend a weekly seminar (I believe they still are). I’m a little ashamed to admit, but that aspect of the seminars definitely gave me some added motivation to attend. At the time, it was my one unhealthy weak moment each week. In retrospect, that regularly scheduled weak moment was actually a very healthy thing. It’s easy to be all healthy during all other moments of the week if you have that one day to look forward to. Of course, you’re really reading this to find out about cookies, so I’ll get back to it.
Every time I bake chocolate chip cookies, they come out thin and crispy, which is not my desired style of cookie. Some may like them that way, but I vastly prefer something with a little more depth. Before I got into baking, I just blindly followed the same recipe each time—expecting that my failures must have been something I was messing up. Actually, it was a fault in the recipe: I was using The Joy of Cooking as my source, which normally an excellent source. Just not this time.
A friend told me to just follow the recipe on the chocolate chip bag. I did, but the only difference was a change in sugar quantities: 1/4 less of both granulated and brown sugars. Everything other aspect of the recipe was identical, and the outcome was only slightly better. That’s when my real quest for success in chocolate chip cookies began.
The Prantle’s cookies are thicker than your average cookie. Actually, it’s the chocolate chunk cookies that get me. Their standard chocolate chip cookies are nothing to write home about. If you’re looking at their counter and having a hard time finding the right cookie, the chocolate chunks are nearly identical to their M&M cookies—just with a different type of mix-in. They’re also a little bit larger than your typical cookie—though not enormous. This was my template.
I started last weekend by prepping the recipe from the back of a bag of Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate chips. I divided one complete recipe into 100g micro-batches and started baking some variations. I was aiming for something with a more cake-like texture, so adding flour seemed like a logical first step. To the first micro-batch, I added 3 grams of flour. Then 5, 10, and 20. I baked each to see where I landed. An extra 10 grams seemed all the difference. You can see my results below.
The cookies on the far right, with 20 extra grams of flour per micro-batch, were my favorite. They look a little flatter than the 10 gram variation, but that’s because I pressed them down before baking for fear that they wouldn’t settle during baking.
Last night, I had a friend coming for dinner that I knew would appreciate some quality cookies, so I decided to apply my findings and make a batch of what would hopefully become the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. I think I succeeded. I made larger cookies to better match my Prantl’s template and added 60 extra grams of flour to the half batch (half the recipe on the chocolate chunks—see recipe below). The other major variation was to roll out balls of dough rather than just drop blobs on the cookie sheet. Before baking, I pressed the dough balls down just slightly to make sure they flattened enough during baking. That may not have been necessary, but I didn’t want to take any chances. The results appear below, followed by a list of my final ingredients (which I now have memorized—I’ve made that many attempts).
Mike’s Cakey Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes 20 Large Cookies
- 3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (unbleached)
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups chocolate chunks
- 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Nestle’s has a recipe site where they provide fairly complete directions. Cookies are easy, so there’s not much to the process. It’s somewhat important to bring the eggs and butter up to room temperature before mixing them in with the sugars. The only other important aspect is to get your oven good and hot, so try to preheat at least 30 minutes before baking and consider resting your pan on a baking stone. I often preheat to 25° warmer than necessary then turn the oven down when I put in the cookies—just to be sure.