Help me recreate my childhood white chocolate chip cookies

[Michael Yugo]

Hello all,
I have been on a mission to track down a recipe for a chocolate chip cookie from my youth. Back in the 70-80s in Northwest Indiana, we had a Glen Park Bakery. They sold little, white chocolate chip cookies that had the most peculiar characteristics:
- Small size
- White in appearance with chocolate chips
- They were powdery and would crumble in the box, often with the flour/crumbs accumulating
- They were very soft
- The chips would not melt, they maintained their hardness to an extent (not like Nestle toll house by comparison)
- They would, literally, crumble in your mouth. You could press them against the roof of your mouth and they would crumble

I've hit up my high school reunion and friends, looking for a cook book from that bakery but nothing. I've experimented a dozen times but never found anything that would give cookies the above characteristics.

I would love for any advice, counsel you can offer on these mystery cookies.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Michael

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I hate to burst your bubble, but you might be a little disappointed to learn some ugly truths about commercial bakeries in America.

If the white chocolate chips did not melt, that’s an indication they were imitation white chocolate chips.

White chocolate is pure cocoa butter and sugar, and actually has a lower melting point that dark chocolate.

Imitation chocolate chips are made with vegetable oils and sugar and a binder. Commercial bakeries use them because they are significantly cheaper than real chocolate chips.
A very light color cookie dough sounds like a shortbread dough. Since the cookies were really white, that’s an indication that there wasn’t really a lot of butter in the dough. So the dough was probably made with an combination of butter and shortening. Shortening iscommonly used in commercial bakeries, again for cost reason. But also because it’s a better emulsifier than butter. In fact, so much shortening is used in the food industry that the federal government finally banned the use of partially hydrogenated oil and shortenings in June 2018. The commercial bakery industry is notorious for its use of shortening. In fact it continues to use massive quantities of PHO-shortening.
The light color would also be from bleached, low protein flour.
For a crumbly dough, mix by hand.

So to reproduce this cookie you would need the following.

• Mini imitation white chocolate chips
• Shortbread cookie dough made with beached flour and combination of butter and shortening
• Mix shortbread dough by hand

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipe...-cookies/6480cf3c-f19c-49cc-b9b2-d17fbe35dee2

 

[Michael Yugo]

Norcal...
THANK you so much. I'm excited to try the shortbread recipe. I apologize for the mistake on chips, the chips were small, semi sweet or milk chocolate, not white chocolate. I hope this brings me closer to the memory my friend. Thank you again for the knowledge!

Vr

Michael

I hate to burst your bubble, but you might be a little disappointed to learn some ugly truths about commercial bakeries in America.

If the white chocolate chips did not melt, that’s an indication they were imitation white chocolate chips.

White chocolate is pure cocoa butter and sugar, and actually has a lower melting point that dark chocolate.

Imitation chocolate chips are made with vegetable oils and sugar and a binder. Commercial bakeries use them because they are significantly cheaper than real chocolate chips.
A very light color cookie dough sounds like a shortbread dough. Since the cookies were really white, that’s an indication that there wasn’t really a lot of butter in the dough. So the dough was probably made with an combination of butter and shortening. Shortening iscommonly used in commercial bakeries, again for cost reason. But also because it’s a better emulsifier than butter. In fact, so much shortening is used in the food industry that the federal government finally banned the use of partially hydrogenated oil and shortenings in June 2018. The commercial bakery industry is notorious for its use of shortening. In fact it continues to use massive quantities of PHO-shortening.
The light color would also be from bleached, low protein flour.
For a crumbly dough, mix by hand.

So to reproduce this cookie you would need the following.

• Mini imitation white chocolate chips
• Shortbread cookie dough made with beached flour and combination of butter and shortening
• Mix shortbread dough by hand

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipe...-cookies/6480cf3c-f19c-49cc-b9b2-d17fbe35dee2

 

[Norcalbaker59]

@Michael Yugo, you’re welcome. Just try any mini chocolate chip for your cookie then. Chocolate chips are compound chocolate rather than couverture chocolate.

Compound chocolate is mixed with a binder so it will hold together when baked and cooled. Coverture chocolate is real chocolate and it will melt. Are use large chunks of chopped couverture chocolate in my chocolate chip cookies. Half will melt, giving the cookies a rich layer of chocolate.So you’ll definitely not get that if you use a chocolate chip.

Unfortunately, it’s near impossible to recreate a commercial produced bakery good since they have access to ingredients that home bakers don’t have access to, things like dough conditioners and preservatives that actually change the texture and sometimes taste of baked goods. But I hope you can re-create something that is close.

 

[retired baker]

Hello all,
I have been on a mission to track down a recipe for a chocolate chip cookie from my youth. Back in the 70-80s in Northwest Indiana, we had a Glen Park Bakery. They sold little, white chocolate chip cookies that had the most peculiar characteristics:
- Small size
- White in appearance with chocolate chips
- They were powdery and would crumble in the box, often with the flour/crumbs accumulating
- They were very soft
- The chips would not melt, they maintained their hardness to an extent (not like Nestle toll house by comparison)
- They would, literally, crumble in your mouth. You could press them against the roof of your mouth and they would crumble

I've hit up my high school reunion and friends, looking for a cook book from that bakery but nothing. I've experimented a dozen times but never found anything that would give cookies the above characteristics.

I would love for any advice, counsel you can offer on these mystery cookies.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Michael

No mystery.
Those are commonly known as mexican wedding cookies.