Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cut the crap and here's my chocolate chip cookies that I baked today!

Ingredients: (Make about 5 dozen cookies)

• 1 cup / 2 sticks / 225 g butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Method:
1. Heat oven to 375 F or 190 degree.
2. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking soda). Put aside.
3. In another mixing bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla with mixer until creamy.
4. Add eggs, beat well.
5. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the butter mixture, beating, until well blended.
6. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts if desired.
7. Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.
8. Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

DONE!!

 

As for pan recipe: Spread batter into greased 15-1/2 x 10-1/2 x 1 inch jelly-roll pan. Bake at 375 F. 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

Note to self:

1. I used parchment paper as well as greasing the baking pan with the remaining butter. I don't think there's exactly 225g of butter in the market. It's always 250g so the balance can be used to grease the pan. Also, I think the cookies from the greasing pan is nicer coz there's the salty taste at the bottom of the cookies.

Parchment paper

Greasing

2. I took longer time baking the cookies which is about 20-25 minutes. I like it slightly brownish. Also when taking the cookies straight right out from the oven, it will be slightly soft on top. So fear not. It's okay. It would be hardened when it's cool.

3. BAKING SODA is not baking powder. I actually put baking powder in my baking today instead of baking soda as stated. Wahahaha. Baking soda is actually bicarbonate of soda. I was squeezing my brain out to figure out what is baking soda and I just decided to put baking powder since they have 'baking' in their names. Later then when I googled it, I just knew that it's not the same. Here's the difference. We're gonna refresh our Chemistry so stay with me.

Baking soda is also known as sodium bicarbonate. When baking soda is combined with moisture and meets with heat in an acidic ingredients (e.g., yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), carbon dioxide gas is formed. This gas gives rise to our favorite cakes, cookies and biscuits. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so it is essential to bake the recipes immediately or they will fall flat.

There is one drawback to the production of this gas. When heated, baking soda also produces sodium carbonate, which doesn’t taste very good. Thankfully, the metallic taste of sodium carbonate can be neutralized by acid. Lemon, yogurt, buttermilk, and unsweetened natural cocoa powder can neutralize the taste of sodium carbonate and keep our baked goods risen and lifted.

Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and acid which means it contains sodium bicarbonate but includes the acidifying agent already (cream of tartar) and also a drying agent (usually starch). Baking powder is a part of baking soda! Baking powder is available as 'single-acting' and as 'double-acting'. ' Single-acting' powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. ' Double-acting' powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With 'double-acting' powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to dough or batter, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven

Because baking powder is a leavener that contains both the sodium bicarbonate and the flavor-saving acid, it is usually paired with non-acid ingredients like whole milk and Dutch-processed cocoa

How it is determine to use which and which?

Some recipes call for baking soda, while others call for baking powder. Which ingredient is used depends on the other ingredients in the recipe. The ultimate goal is to produce a tasty product with a pleasing texture. Baking soda is basic and will yield a bitter taste unless countered by the acidity of another ingredient, such as buttermilk. You'll find baking soda in cookie recipes. Baking powder contains both an acid and a base and has an overall neutral effect in terms of taste. Recipes that call for baking powder often call for other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk. Baking powder is a common ingredient in cakes and biscuits.


Substituting the ingredients

You can substitute baking powder in place of baking soda (you'll need more baking powder and it may affect the taste), but you can't use baking soda when a recipe calls for baking powder. Baking soda by itself lacks the acidity to make a cake rise. However, you can make your own baking powder if you have baking soda and cream of tartar. Simply mix two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda.

4. The chocolate chips I bought from Mee Soya accounts of about 1 cup of chocolate chips only. So for future use, buy two packets. The more, the better!!

5. Also, I've read somewhere where we need to refrigerate the dough for about 15 minutes before baking. I have different version of this. One, I bake without refrigerate which turns out nice. Second, I refrigerate the whole batter which is still in the mixing bowl for about 15 minutes and I find it easier to shape the dough when lined on the baking pan. Third, I shaped the cookies on the baking pan and then refrigerate it and it turns to disaster.

The third batch.

I don't know what happen to cause this batch so flat and squarish.

 

From my reading, the purpose of chilling is to enhance the flavor and more even browning. If you put a warm, melty dough into the oven, your cookies will spread before they begin to set up. Too often they'll run into one another, becoming a single crisp, crunchy mess on your cookie sheet. the cooler the dough when it goes into the oven, the less it will spread.

 

(Which makes me wonder why my third batch of cookies are still so spread when I had chilled them in the oven. My guess would be because I've lined them on the baking pan first before refrigerate and earlier on, they've exposed to the hot temperature (surrounding) too long.)

 

Another reason that the cookie dough is refrigerated is that it gives the gluten time to relax. You don't want to mix a cookie dough containing wheat flour any more than absolutely necessary, as the more you mix it, the more the gluten develops, the more rubbery your cookies will be. Letting the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour does wonders for relaxing the gluten and producing cookies that are soft and crunchy (depending on your preferences), but not tough and rubbery.

 

Lastly, letting the dough rest in the refrigerator also gives the flour more time to absorb the liquid more fully. This allow the dough to become drier and firmer, which produces a better consistency in the finished cookies and also better taste. Even Ruth Wakefield, creator of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie, said she chilled the dough overnight.

 

(Actually, I don't see a difference between chilled and not chilled dough. Perhaps I need to bake chocolate chip cookies a few more time to be able to tell the difference)

Thanks for reading.

Mwah mwah

 

p/s: this recipe is obtained from the back of Hershey's chocolate chips packaging.