More Chocolate Chip Cookie Experimentation
Posted by in Food
In a previous post, I talked about how the original Tollhouse cookie recipe, which was developed by the sainted Ruth Wakefield, required 36 hours of refrigeration before baking. When I tried it, I was bowled over by the results. The other interesting piece of info you should know about the original cookies is that flour was different back in those days, and had a higher protein content. The all-purpose flour we use today is not the same. So, in the interests of science, I decided to make the cookies using bread flour which has a higher protein content and is recommended in the cookbook Bakewise (read the excerpt here). I used the Tollhouse recipe on the Nestle bag again (note: this is not the same recipe Ruth used – I’ll give that one a spin another day, so stayed tuned) but substituted bread flour. I refrigerated the dough for 36 hours (this required me to make other cookies so there would not be a riot and I admit I slipped out to the garage to sample the dough a few times!)
The cookies don’t spread as much as the regular recipe. They look like cookies the way my grandmother used to make them. They’re thick. The edges are crisp but the insides of the cookies are chewy, but not in a sticky way, in the way that substantial baked goods are chewy. They seem a lot less greasy than the regular cookies and feel more substantial somehow. You have to bite into them – they aren’t thin cookies that sort of break off in your mouth. I kind of like the chewiness and the feeling that it’s a COOKIE. These get high marks from me.
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Those look wonderful! In the pre-diabetes days, I would make a batch of chocolate chip cookies and make half of them chewy for me and the other half crispy for my husband. Good memories!
I’ve made cookies with bread flour before because that’s what I most often have on hand, and it’s always worked out well. have yet to try the 36 hour refrig method, but sounds good.
I’m trying it too. Thank you for the posting. I could never figure it out; my cookies always spread. The problem is: my husband tells me that I love to bake and he loves to eat!
I love to bake AND eat, which is quite a problem!
I want to come to your house and eat these cookies! Yum. I’m hungry now. I often make cookies but I usually don’t make chocolate chip ones (agave does NOT work well with chocolate chips. Maybe that could be your next challenge — finding an awesome choc chip recipe that you can sweeten with agave). Wish I were coming to Buffalo when my husband goes there next week!
I’ll have to try it with bread flour. Make sense.
I realized after your last cookie post that I indeed get some refrigeration benefit since I usually only make a few cookies each day from one batch of dough. So, I’d guess my second-day cookies have that extra goodness. I wonder if it declines, though, over time. Probably.
Still, nothing better than fresh cookies and milk.
You have more will power than me! I don’t know if it declines over time – that is an interesting consideration. I’ll bet it does. I’ll have to try it though to see if 36 hours is the optimum window.
Ummmm I like thick chewy cookies. I love that you are finding all of the real secrets to making them.
I’ve never been a fan of the Tollhouse recipe but I went ahead and tried the 36-hour version. It didn’t work at all. So strange, I followed the directions exactly, but the cookies still spread and the flavor was, well, not good. Any idea what went wrong? High altitude? I’d like to give the bread flour a try.
Honestly, you’ve solved a mystery for me that’s bothered me for years; why my toll house cookies are always flat and sort of runny, when this isn’t how I remember them from my childhood? I LOVE knowing this history! I will definitely try the bread flour. I’d love to try the refrigeration too, but don’t know if I have the patience and foresight; I always seem to make cookies right when I’m dying to eat them!
I don’t know. They do still spread if you use regular flour not bread flour, so that doesn’t change. I don’t know anything about high altitude baking – maybe someone else does? The cookies should have a different texture and taste when you refrigerate. You should get the three rings of flavor I mentioned in the older post I link to here.
Oooh!! I’m on a quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie myself. I love your research into the original recipe and how ingredients differed then and now.