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Food Info - Baked Goods: Making Successful Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source of Recipe

Candy Saigon


Recipe Introduction

Newspaper article titled "Chipping Away at a Rediscovered Cookie Habit"

List of Ingredients

" It's a miracle! A sign from heaven! My ability to make chocolate chip cookies has been restored.

I lost it about three years ago. For years I turned out terrific chippers -- so terrific, in fact, they secured my first chance at food writing -- then I lost the knack.

I'd sift the flour, just the way I used to. I'd measure out the sugar. I'd cream the butter. I'd check to make sure the chips were fresh by eating several handfuls. I was doing everything the same, it seemed, but the cookies were awful.

They spread, they were greasy, they burned. They stayed in the cookie jar for weeks because no one wanted them, and when they did, they'd carefully pry out the chips and throw the rest away. When I told my son I could bake cookies for his class picnic, he told me to bring napkins instead.

I was desolate. What could have happened?

My friend Pat's theory was that it was the culinary equivalent of lost socks: One day it's there, the next day it isn't. Get over it.

My husband, Mr. Star Trek, surmised it could be space-time anomaly in the Devron System that was causing a time shift in my cooking abilities and eventually I wouldn't even remember how to make toast.

My neighbor said, "You make cookies from screatch?"

My personal feeling was that ever since I had stopped nibbling the raw cookie dough (uncooked eggs! they'll kill you!), the cookies weren't coming out right. Otherwise, I was sure it was nothing I was doing that was causing the cookies to fail.

My first clue otherwise came from local cookie maven Lisa Yockelson. "You twit," she said. (Actually, she didn't, but she probably was thinking it.) "You're oversoftening the butter. Butter that is too soft [for creaming with the sugar] will turn to oil when you bake the cookie."

*Quel surprise!* Exactly what my oily little cookies were doing. It seems that my idea of saving time by zapping the butter in the microwave to the gooshy stage was a culinary no-no. Who knew?

My real revelation, however, came from the woman I now refer to as Saint Katherine because she has resurrected my cookie reputation.

Katherine Redford is pastry chef at Dallas chef Stephan Pyle's new, so-hot-you-can't-get-a-reservation-for-months Star Canyon restaurant. At a grand-opening party, guests raved about Redford's chocolate chip cookies, which were being passed around by the basketful.

I asked her for her secrets. She had three: Bake at a very low heat, fold in dry ingredients by hand and add a little toasted oatmeal.

The biggest surprise was the oven temperature Redford swears by. Most recipes call for baking chocolate chip cookies for 9-11 minutes at 375x. "Much too hot," says Redford. She suggests no hotter than 325x and baking for 20 minutes. "The cookies get a beautiful even golden color with a crusty top and a soft, moist inside." (Another hint: If the edges of the cookies brown, the oven is too hot.)

As for her other secrets, "my grandmother taught me that you can beat the hell out of the butter, but you better fold in those dry ingredients by hand."

Redford grew up in the little town of Hamilton, south of Dallas, and says she remembers many a day as a child standing at the counter watching her grandmother make cookies. "Most people make the mistake of overmixing and their cookies come out tough and dry," she admonishes. "You can use a mixer to do the creaming, but add the flour by hand with a rubber spatula."

She also likes to add a little toasted oatmeal to her cookies "because it gives them a subtle nutty flavor." She uses Texas pecans, of course, but her chocolate of choice is Hawaiian and she prefers to combine two-thirds semi-sweet to one-third milk chocolate chunks.

All of this was intriguing and I decided to give her recipe a try.

I toasted the oatmeal. I set the oven to 325x. I folded by hand.

I watched as the most gorgeous chocolate chip cookies I had seen in three years turned a beautfiul even golden color in the oven.

I watched my family prostrate themselves at my feet, begging me to make another batch.

This is a great recipe, folks, although I do have one tiny admission to make. I still zapped the butter in the microwave. But only for a few seconds. On defrost. I swear I'll stop it the day all the socks return.

[See recipe: Katherine Redford's Chocolate Chip Cookies below]

The Washington Post, 7/13/94, Food Section, pE4."


Recipe

{ Exported from MasterCook Mac }

Katherine Redford's Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 oz Unsalted butter, softened
1/3 c Light brown sugar
1/3 c White sugar
1 Egg
1 t Vanilla
1 c Plus 2 T flour
1/2 ts Baking soda
pn Salt
1/2 c Toasted oatmeal
6 oz Dark, semi-sweet chunks
2 oz Milk chocolate chunks
1 c Roasted Texas pecans (opt)

To toast oatmeal: Spread oatmeal in shallow pan and toast at 350¼F just until oatmeal begins to change color, 5-10 minutes; watch closely.

Preheat oven to 325¼F. Cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and toasted oatmeal. Fold into butter mixture *by hand* just until incorporated; do not overmix. Lightly fold in both chocolates and pecans, if using. Spoon by tablespoon onto cookie sheets and press down with back of spoon to lightly flatten. Bake at 325x for 20 minutes until an even light golden color. (If edges start to brown, oven is too hot.) Remove from baking sheet and let cool on rack. Makes 1 dozen big or 2 dozen small cookies.

Per serving (1 large cookie): 302 calories, 4 gm protein, 32 gm carbohydrates, 19 gm fat, 5 gm saturated fat, 39 mg cholesterol, 101 mg sodium.

Source: Katherine Redford of the Star Canyon restaurant, as appeared in
the Washington Post Food Section, 7/13/94, pe4.