Please give me your input !!

[ckat414]

I’ve tried recipes up and down left and right . Chilled my butter, melted my butter, switched up brown sugar and white sugar amounts, added cornstarch, removed it, chilled the dough, baked dough immediate, many different temperatures and bake times and I just can’t seem to get this !!! My ideal cookie is the first two pictures - see how ‘smooth’ the cookie bakes? Mine are the last two and always turns out with ‘ripples’, like a deflated balloon. I’ve looked all over Pinterest, blogs and recipe sites. Does anyone have a recipe or know how I achieve my cookie goal ?!

 

[Anna Spainhour]

What temperature,do you use your butter in the recipe?

 

[ckat414]

Room temperature

 

[Anna Spainhour]

I used to use room temperature but I found cold butter better. By the time you whip other stuff with it, butter will come to the right temp. Try using cold butter and mix your butter and sugar at least 4-5 minutes before you add other ingredients. Good luck.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

First, know the cookies in the photos that you like are fake to a large degree. The dough in one is piped, the other shaped with a scoop. Then both have little add ins. Instead the chocolate is hand placed in the dough. All this to fake perfect cookie.

That said...

all bleached flour, not unbleached flour

50/50 granulated to light brown sugar not dark brown sugar

Cream butter properly; Google Stella Parks Serious Eats creaming butter

Significantly reduce the amount of add-ins you have too much stuff in your dough

chill dough over night

shape dough balls, hand place chocolate on dough.

bake, while cookies are still hot, hand place any additional chocolate where you want it on each cookie

 

[ckat414]

I followed your instructions @Norcalbaker59 @Anna Spainhour and while the cookie flavour was amazing and so soft the cosmetic outcome still not what I was hoping . I didn’t spend too much time on the placement of the chocolate but my main goal is the smoothness of the dough , mine is still ‘wrinkly’.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I followed your instructions @Norcalbaker59 @Anna Spainhour and while the cookie flavour was amazing and so soft the cosmetic outcome still not what I was hoping . I didn’t spend too much time on the placement of the chocolate but my main goal is the smoothness of the dough , mine is still ‘wrinkly’.

You have add ins in your dough. Look at the pics of the cookies you like. There’s essentially nothing in the dough. Everything is placed on top after the fact.

I think using 70°F butter to break it the emulsion so you have a poor dough quality. Then under beat the dough.

To be honest I’m not sure why you want that kind of dough. It’s actually a very poor dough quality. That’s the opposite of what makes a good chocolate chip cookie. That texture is thin; the butter had no plasticity, so there is no rise. The smooth dough is a sign the dough was over mixed. So the texture will be gummy and cakey like.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

One other thing replace the baking soda with baking powder

 

[ckat414]

@Norcalbaker59 ive been wondering about powered vs soda. I use 1/2 tsp soda. What would that equal to powder ? I feel like it’s a leavening issue

 

[Norcalbaker59]

@Norcalbaker59 ive been wondering about powered vs soda. I use 1/2 tsp soda. What would that equal to powder ? I feel like it’s a leavening issue

It’s not just leavening. It’s a combination of flour type (bleached); too warm of butter and a beating time. The dough has no color. That means it is bleached flour. The dough is dense and thick. That means the butter was too warm, so the dough is gooey and thick. The dough has no crinkles, so the dough did not rise properly, so the dough was not mixed properly.

Those are really bad cookies. You may visually find those cookies visually appealing for some reason, but to reproduce them you’re going to find they taste horrible and the texture is just wretched.

Those cookies are very think we look for as major errors in a drop cookie.


Edit: try 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder to substitute 1/2 baking soda

 

[ckat414]

Will attempt again with powder and less add ins.....