The cookie disaster

[silvercookie420]

My sister was making some chocolate chip cookies, and in the batch she was making she quadruple all the ingredients. Now the cookies are crispy on the outside and under-cooked in the middle. How

do we fix this issue?

Please help!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

My sister was making some chocolate chip cookies, and in the batch she was making she quadruple all the ingredients. Now the cookies are crispy on the outside and under-cooked in the middle. HowView attachment 2911 do we fix this issue?

Please help!

1) bake by weight not volume. You cannot properly scale a recipe using cups and spoons. You must scale using bakers percentages.

2) You cannot use room temperature butter. This hot mess demonstrates the disaster you get when you use the wrong temperature butter to cream butter and sugar. Friction causes heat. You overheated your butter.


This is the proper way to cream butter and sugar

Cookie Science: Why Cream Butter and Sugar?

Does your cookie recipe call for creaming the butter by beating it with sugar? Just how important is that step, and how do you know if you're doing it right? We break down the science of creaming and explain exactly how to do it.

www.seriouseats.com

 

[Norcalbaker59]

And if you want a chocolate chip cookie recipe by weight let me know I’ll post one

 

[silvercookie420]

1) bake by weight not volume. You cannot properly scale a recipe using cups and spoons. You must scale using bakers percentages.

2) You cannot use room temperature butter. This hot mess demonstrates the disaster you get when you use the wrong temperature butter to cream butter and sugar. Friction causes heat. You overheated your butter.


This is the proper way to cream butter and sugar

Cookie Science: Why Cream Butter and Sugar?

Does your cookie recipe call for creaming the butter by beating it with sugar? Just how important is that step, and how do you know if you're doing it right? We break down the science of creaming and explain exactly how to do it.

www.seriouseats.com

1) bake by weight not volume. You cannot properly scale a recipe using cups and spoons. You must scale using bakers percentages.

2) You cannot use room temperature butter. This hot mess demonstrates the disaster you get when you use the wrong temperature butter to cream butter and sugar. Friction causes heat. You overheated your butter.


This is the proper way to cream butter and sugar

Cookie Science: Why Cream Butter and Sugar?

Does your cookie recipe call for creaming the butter by beating it with sugar? Just how important is that step, and how do you know if you're doing it right? We break down the science of creaming and explain exactly how to do it.

www.seriouseats.com

Thanks for the info i appreciate your help

 

[Norcalbaker59]

@silvercookie420

Yield: 24 - 3” Chocolate Chip Cookies 48g dough per cookie	GRAMS		BAKER’S PERCENTAGES
All purpose flour approx 11%, King Arthur or Central Milling Organic Artisan Bakers Craft Plus	285		1.00
Diamond brand kosher salt	6		0.02
Baking soda	4		0.014
Espresso powder	2		0.007
Light brown cane sugar C&H	100		0.35
Granulated cane sugar C&H	100		0.35
Unsalted butter 82% butter fat Plugra 60°F, cut in large cubes	200		0.70
Dash fresh nutmeg (optional)
Eggs cold, slightly beaten	100		0.35
Vanilla paste or extract	15		0.052
Semi-sweet or bittersweet chopped chocolate or chocolate chips* I use Callebaut 60% block	350		1.23
TOTAL DOUGH WEIGHT	1162	TOTAL BAKER’S %	4.073

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Parchment paper
• Rimmed baking sheets
• Cooling rack and 4 mugs to elevate rack

Plan ahead: dough is chilled 1 hour and up to 36 hours before baking.

Mise en place: weight all ingredients; set up mixer with paddle attachment

1. Thoroughly whisk flour, salt, baking soda, and espresso powder. Set aside
2. Place sugars in mixer bowl and mix to combine
3. Add butter and nutmeg if using to mixer bowl
4. Cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2.5minutes.
5. Scrape sides AND bottom of bowl
6. Continue beating additional 2.5 minutes. Do not exceed 68°F.
7. Add cold eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute until egg is incorporated
8. Scrape down bowl
9. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and mix for about 30 seconds. There will be traces of flour.
10. Add chocolate and mix to distribute chocolate.
11. Do not overmix.
12. Transfer dough to clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.

TO BAKE

1. Place mugs under corners of cooling rack. Circulation around and under the cooling rack is key to proper cooling of all baked goods—cookies, cakes, pies, bread, rolls. I don’t care what you are cooling—-get that rack up off the countertop!!!!
2. Place the rack in the center of the oven
3. Preheat oven 350°F at least 25 minutes before baking
4. Confirm the oven temperature with an oven thermometer before placing a cookie sheet in the oven
5. Cover rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Do Not Use silpat mat. They are terrible for cookies. Do not use a dark metal
6. Scale 48g dough per cookie. I use a is known as a disher in the food industry, and what home bakers call cookie scoops.
7. You can scoop all the dough, and refrigerate it while waiting to bake. Dough balls can also be frozen up to 4 months.
8. Place 3” apart on cookie sheet
9. Bake about 12 minutes, rotate mid way.
10. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, remove to elevated cooling rack

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TIPS:

Do Not Use silpat mat. They conduct heat more intensely so the bottoms bake faster. They also cause the cookies to spread more.

Do not use a dark metal, most non stick, or anodized aluminum baking sheet as they conduct heat more intensely. NordicWare Natural rimmed baking sheet or Chicago Metallic Uncoated Commercial II. If using a coated baking sheet, the only one I would recommend is the Chicago Metallica Commercial II.

You may have to adjust the bake time as every oven is unique.

Brand of ingredients effect the outcome because it changes the chemical reaction during baking. When you use different brands you change the molecular composition slightly. Its not to say you cannot use different brands, I just want you to understand why I noted brands and why it’s important. Take flour as an example. Protein levels in flour vary by brand. Bleaching changes flour performance. Gold Medal flour is bleached. The protein is about 10.5%. King Arthur all purpose flour is unbleached. The protein is 11.7%. Gold Medal will produce a cookie that is lighter and more starchy like, for lack of a better description, because it has more starch. The the bleaching changes how the flour performs.

Cane sugar caramelizes, but sugarbeet sugar does not. Caramelization of sugar gives you flavor.

Imperial brand cane brown sugar is very coarse compared to C&H and Dominos. The larger the crystals, the longer to dissolve during baking. If I’m using two sugars in a recipe, then I don’t want the brown sugar that much more significantly coarse than my granulated sugar. C&H and Domino are the same company. Their brown sugars are fine in texture. So I use those two brands.

I never use sugarbeet sugar. It won’t caramelize.

Plugra butter has more butterfat than store brands. Less butterfat means more water. So when you use different brands, it just means less butterfat. LandOLakes will work fine. But I wouldn’t use a store brand.

To freeze dough balls. Place on tray and place in freezer for 30 minutes, until frozen. Transfer to airtight container.

To bake, preheat over 350°F for at least 25 minutes. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place frozen dough balls 3” apart on cookie sheet. Bake about 12 - 14 minutes, rotate mid way.

I will explain baker’s percentages in a separate post later.


This is my cookie from a recipe that I also developed that is pretty close to this one. Not exactly the same, but close. You should get a result that is very close to this cookie.

NOT MY COOKIE, but I wanted you to see the difference when bleached flour is used in a cookie. I cannot remember the website this came from.

NOT MY BRULEE, but I wanted you to see the difference in sugar beet sugar and cane sugar. The cane sugar is on the right. The photo is from an article on sugar from the food section in the San Francisco Chronicle

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Also let me know if something is missing. I don’t write recipes in this format, I use baker’s formula. So I may have missed something

 

[Norcalbaker59]

@silvercookie420

Yield: 24 - 3” Chocolate Chip Cookies 48g dough per cookie	GRAMS		BAKER’S PERCENTAGES
All purpose flour approx 11%, King Arthur or Central Milling Organic Artisan Bakers Craft Plus	285		1.00
Diamond brand kosher salt	6		0.02
Baking soda	4		0.014
Espresso powder	2		0.007
Light brown cane sugar C&H	100		0.35
Granulated cane sugar C&H	100		0.35
Unsalted butter 82% butter fat Plugra 60°F, cut in large cubes	200		0.70
Dash fresh nutmeg (optional)
Eggs cold, slightly beaten	100		0.35
Vanilla paste or extract	15		0.052
Semi-sweet or bittersweet chopped chocolate or chocolate chips* I use Callebaut 60% block	350		1.23
TOTAL DOUGH WEIGHT	1162	TOTAL BAKER’S %	4.073

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Parchment paper
• Rimmed baking sheets
• Cooling rack and 4 mugs to elevate rack

Plan ahead: dough is chilled 1 hour and up to 36 hours before baking.

Mise en place: weight all ingredients; set up mixer with paddle attachment

1. Thoroughly whisk flour, salt, baking soda, and espresso powder. Set aside
2. Place sugars in mixer bowl and mix to combine
3. Add butter and nutmeg if using to mixer bowl
4. Cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2.5minutes.
5. Scrape sides AND bottom of bowl
6. Continue beating additional 2.5 minutes. Do not exceed 68°F.
7. Add cold eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute until egg is incorporated
8. Scrape down bowl
9. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and mix for about 30 seconds. There will be traces of flour.
10. Add chocolate and mix to distribute chocolate.
11. Do not overmix.
12. Transfer dough to clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.

TO BAKE

1. Place mugs under corners of cooling rack. Circulation around and under the cooling rack is key to proper cooling of all baked goods—cookies, cakes, pies, bread, rolls. I don’t care what you are cooling—-get that rack up off the countertop!!!!
2. Place the rack in the center of the oven
3. Preheat oven 350°F at least 25 minutes before baking
4. Confirm the oven temperature with an oven thermometer before placing a cookie sheet in the oven
5. Cover rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Do Not Use silpat mat. They are terrible for cookies. Do not use a dark metal
6. Scale 48g dough per cookie. I use a is known as a disher in the food industry, and what home bakers call cookie scoops.
7. You can scoop all the dough, and refrigerate it while waiting to bake. Dough balls can also be frozen up to 4 months.
8. Place 3” apart on cookie sheet
9. Bake about 12 minutes, rotate mid way.
10. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, remove to elevated cooling rack

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TIPS:

Do Not Use silpat mat. They conduct heat more intensely so the bottoms bake faster. They also cause the cookies to spread more.

Do not use a dark metal, most non stick, or anodized aluminum baking sheet as they conduct heat more intensely. NordicWare Natural rimmed baking sheet or Chicago Metallic Uncoated Commercial II. If using a coated baking sheet, the only one I would recommend is the Chicago Metallica Commercial II.

You may have to adjust the bake time as every oven is unique.

Brand of ingredients effect the outcome because it changes the chemical reaction during baking. When you use different brands you change the molecular composition slightly. Its not to say you cannot use different brands, I just want you to understand why I noted brands and why it’s important. Take flour as an example. Protein levels in flour vary by brand. Bleaching changes flour performance. Gold Medal flour is bleached. The protein is about 10.5%. King Arthur all purpose flour is unbleached. The protein is 11.7%. Gold Medal will produce a cookie that is lighter and more starchy like, for lack of a better description, because it has more starch. The the bleaching changes how the flour performs.

Cane sugar caramelizes, but sugarbeet sugar does not. Caramelization of sugar gives you flavor.

Imperial brand cane brown sugar is very coarse compared to C&H and Dominos. The larger the crystals, the longer to dissolve during baking. If I’m using two sugars in a recipe, then I don’t want the brown sugar that much more significantly coarse than my granulated sugar. C&H and Domino are the same company. Their brown sugars are fine in texture. So I use those two brands.

I never use sugarbeet sugar. It won’t caramelize.

Plugra butter has more butterfat than store brands. Less butterfat means more water. So when you use different brands, it just means less butterfat. LandOLakes will work fine. But I wouldn’t use a store brand.

To freeze dough balls. Place on tray and place in freezer for 30 minutes, until frozen. Transfer to airtight container.

To bake, preheat over 350°F for at least 25 minutes. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place frozen dough balls 3” apart on cookie sheet. Bake about 12 - 14 minutes, rotate mid way.

I will explain baker’s percentages in a separate post later.


This is my cookie from a recipe that I also developed that is pretty close to this one. Not exactly the same, but close. You should get a result that is very close to this cookie.
View attachment 2921



NOT MY COOKIE, but I wanted you to see the difference when bleached flour is used in a cookie. I cannot remember the website this came from.


View attachment 2920


NOT MY BRULEE, but I wanted you to see the difference in sugar beet sugar and cane sugar. The cane sugar is on the right. The photo is from an article on sugar from the food section in the San Francisco Chronicle

View attachment 2919

I was just doing the baker’s percentages and I just realize that there‘s an error. This recipe was revised for a business project, and I didn’t revise the base dough back to it’s original base. So I need to make an adjustment to the sugar in this recipe.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

CORRECTED RECIPE​

24 - 3” Chocolate Chip Cookies 52g per cookie by Cate Gallagher	GRAMS	BAKER’S PERCENTAGES
All purpose flour approx 11% King Arthur or Central Milling Organic Artisan Bakers Craft Plus	285	1.00	100
Diamond Crystal kosher salt	6	0.02	2
Baking soda	4	0.014	1.4
Espresso powder	2	0.007	0.7
Light brown cane sugar C&H	150	0.53	53
Granulated cane sugar C&H	150	0.53	53
Unsalted butter 82% butter fat Plugra 65°F	200	0.70	70
Dash fresh nutmeg (optional)
Eggs. cold, slightly beaten	100	0.35	35
Vanilla extract	15	0.052	5.2
Semi-sweet or bittersweet chopped chocolate or chocolate chips*	350	1.23	123
TOTAL DOUGH WEIGHT	1262	4.433	443.3

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Parchment paper
• Rimmed baking sheets
• Cooling rack and 4 mugs to elevate rack

Plan ahead: dough is chilled 1 hour and up to 36 hours before baking.
Mise en place: weight all ingredients; set up mixer with paddle attachment



Thoroughly whisk flour, salt, baking soda, and espresso powder. Set aside

Place sugars in mixer bowl and mix to combine

Add butter to mixer bowl

Cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2.5minutes.

Scrape sides AND bottom of bowl

Continue beating additional 2.5 minutes. Do not exceed 68°F.

Add cold eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute until egg is incorporated

Scrape down bowl

With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and mix for about 30 seconds. There will be traces of flour.


Add chocolate and mix to distribute chocolate.

Do not overmix.

Transfer dough to clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.


TO BAKE


Place mugs under corners of cooling rack. Circulation around and under the cooling rack is key to proper cooling of all baked goods—cookies, cakes, pies, bread, rolls. I don’t care what you are cooling—-get that rack up off the countertop!!!!


Place the rack in the center of the oven


Preheat oven 350°F at least 25 minutes before baking


Confirm the oven temperature with an oven thermometer before placing a cookie sheet in the oven


Cover rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Do Not Use silpat mat. They are terrible for cookies. Do not use a dark metal


Scale 52g dough per cookie. I use a is known as a disher in the food industry, and what home bakers call cookie scoops.


You can scoop all the dough, and refrigerate it while waiting to bake. Dough balls can also be frozen up to 4 months.


Place 3” apart on cookie sheet


Bake about 12 minutes, rotate mid way.


Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, remove to elevated cooling rack

 

[Caroline175]

CORRECTED RECIPE​

24 - 3” Chocolate Chip Cookies 52g per cookie by Cate Gallagher	GRAMS	BAKER’S PERCENTAGES
All purpose flour approx 11% King Arthur or Central Milling Organic Artisan Bakers Craft Plus	285	1.00	100
Diamond Crystal kosher salt	6	0.02	2
Baking soda	4	0.014	1.4
Espresso powder	2	0.007	0.7
Light brown cane sugar C&H	150	0.53	53
Granulated cane sugar C&H	150	0.53	53
Unsalted butter 82% butter fat Plugra 65°F	200	0.70	70
Dash fresh nutmeg (optional)
Eggs. cold, slightly beaten	100	0.35	35
Vanilla extract	15	0.052	5.2
Semi-sweet or bittersweet chopped chocolate or chocolate chips*	350	1.23	123
TOTAL DOUGH WEIGHT	1262	4.433	443.3

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Parchment paper
• Rimmed baking sheets
• Cooling rack and 4 mugs to elevate rack

Plan ahead: dough is chilled 1 hour and up to 36 hours before baking.
Mise en place: weight all ingredients; set up mixer with paddle attachment



Thoroughly whisk flour, salt, baking soda, and espresso powder. Set aside

Place sugars in mixer bowl and mix to combine

Add butter to mixer bowl

Cream butter and sugars on medium speed for 2.5minutes.

Scrape sides AND bottom of bowl

Continue beating additional 2.5 minutes. Do not exceed 68°F.

Add cold eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute until egg is incorporated

Scrape down bowl

With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and mix for about 30 seconds. There will be traces of flour.


Add chocolate and mix to distribute chocolate.

Do not overmix.

Transfer dough to clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.


TO BAKE


Place mugs under corners of cooling rack. Circulation around and under the cooling rack is key to proper cooling of all baked goods—cookies, cakes, pies, bread, rolls. I don’t care what you are cooling—-get that rack up off the countertop!!!!


Place the rack in the center of the oven


Preheat oven 350°F at least 25 minutes before baking


Confirm the oven temperature with an oven thermometer before placing a cookie sheet in the oven


Cover rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Do Not Use silpat mat. They are terrible for cookies. Do not use a dark metal


Scale 52g dough per cookie. I use a is known as a disher in the food industry, and what home bakers call cookie scoops.


You can scoop all the dough, and refrigerate it while waiting to bake. Dough balls can also be frozen up to 4 months.


Place 3” apart on cookie sheet


Bake about 12 minutes, rotate mid way.


Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, remove to elevated cooling rack

Hi there,
Have you ever substituted browned butter for the regular butter in your cookies?
Lately, I have started replacing the regular butter with browned butter and adding a small amount of water to replace that lost to evaporation. So far I have been fairly pleased with the results but I am wondering if there is anything else I should be considering?
You have also re-inspired me to get a kitchen scale - I have been resisting but I see now that even just doubling or tripling a recipe may end up with disastrous results otherwise.
Thanks so much,
Caroline

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hi there,
Have you ever substituted browned butter for the regular butter in your cookies?
Lately, I have started replacing the regular butter with browned butter and adding a small amount of water to replace that lost to evaporation. So far I have been fairly pleased with the results but I am wondering if there is anything else I should be considering?
You have also re-inspired me to get a kitchen scale - I have been resisting but I see now that even just doubling or tripling a recipe may end up with disastrous results otherwise.
Thanks so much,
Caroline

Yes I‘ve used brown butter. In all honesty, most people like the texture of cookies without it. It is less greasy and had a different bite. I don’t tell tasters what is in the cookie; I simply give them the cello packages labeled A and B.

But when you tell people it’s a brown butter cookie, they rave about how it good it. People are manipulated by the media. They’re told that the brown butter chocolate chip cookie is supposed to be the best.

So when they don’t know they’re eating it they’re honest about what they like about a cookie. But all that self awareness goes to the wayside for social media hype when they know are they are eating a brown butter cookie.

If you bake a couple times a month, then a food scale is a necessary tool. Measuring cups are inadequate. I am at a point where I rarely if ever convert any recipes. It is just too difficult and I have the time the amounts are in between cups. So it’s impossible to convert. I am at a point where I am refusing to convert.

 

[Cahoot]

To add my two cents, @ShuBunny and I have also been having a conversation involving brown butter in cookies recently. Although brown butter certainly smells amazing by itself, my suspicion is that it's flavour gets dulled during the baking process and/or is muddled by all the other flavours present in a cookie.

I definitely do think that's there's a bit of a placebo effect regarding brown butter in cookies. Although I've never done a proper side-by-side taste test with brown butter vs. without in a cookie, I haven't noticed it that much when I've made brown butter cookies myself. I see people online rave about brown butter in cookies all the time, but I've always just wondered if they have super sensitive palates or something. And I've also noticed that it makes cookies a bit greasier, so still on the fence if it's worth it.

 

[ShuBunny]

I wonder if the greasiness of browned butter cookie has the same cause as overcreaming a cookie. Because the butter has broken down beyond the flex temperature of 20c.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

To add my two cents, @ShuBunny and I have also been having a conversation involving brown butter in cookies recently. Although brown butter certainly smells amazing by itself, my suspicion is that it's flavour gets dulled during the baking process and/or is muddled by all the other flavours present in a cookie.

I definitely do think that's there's a bit of a placebo effect regarding brown butter in cookies. Although I've never done a proper side-by-side taste test with brown butter vs. without in a cookie, I haven't noticed it that much when I've made brown butter cookies myself. I see people online rave about brown butter in cookies all the time, but I've always just wondered if they have super sensitive palates or something. And I've also noticed that it makes cookies a bit greasier, so still on the fence if it's worth it.

Absolutely. I think you hit this one on the nail. And with the chocolate chip cookies there is so much going on with flavor—the brown sugar, chocolate, unbleached higher protein & ash flour, Maillard reaction, the browned butter really gets lost.

I think where the brown butter in a cookie can add flavor is with a more simple dough. My introduction to brown butter in a cookie was some 18 yrs ago with a raspberry thumbprint cookie. It made a bland dough more alive. When the brown butter fad started five yrs later, a couple of bakers in Southern California started a brown butter cookie shop. They sell a shortbread brown butter cookie.

My youngest son is as close to a super taster that I’ve come across. He will detect flavors in things that nobody else seems to notice. He can tell when I change chocolate. He’ll be the first to tell me when a cookie doesn’t have enough salt. He’ll describe the bite of a cookie in detail. Yet he could not detect the brown butter—even after I told him the cookie had brown butter in it.

That’s when I finally decided it was not worth browning the butter.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I wonder if the greasiness of browned butter cookie has the same cause as overcreaming a cookie. Because the butter has broken down beyond the flex temperature of 20c.

Butter is an emulsion. Heat breaks the emotion; the fat and water are separated.

The water is boiled away. So only the fat remains.

The dry ingredients will absorb the liquid fat.

The only way to counter greasiness is chill the butter; beat the butter into the sugar and ribbon the eggs.