We were invited to a chili cook-off block party tonight. I've made chili in the past, but I haven't found a recipe yet that's knocked my socks off, so instead of chili, I baked cookies. Specifically,
My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (pg 68) from Dorie Greenspan's
Baking. I, for one, would rather have cookies than fourteen pots of chili, and I can't imagine anyone will mind.
In the intro, Dorie says that these cookies are "kin to Toll House" chocolate chip cookies, but that she's tweaked a few things that, in her opinion, improve them. I hate to argue over something that's pretty delicious any way you can get it, but I prefer Toll House. I compared the two recipes, and there are only a few changes. Dorie uses less flour, less baking soda, more vanilla, and a different ratio of white and brown sugars. Her cookies spread more than Toll House ever has for me, and they were thinner and less substantial. And they're
fragile. I chose to bake chocolate chip cookies because they're reliable crowd-pleasers, travel well, produce a large yield, and generally don't disintegrate between your fingers. I'm afraid to stack these ones on top of each other, for fear that they'll break.
Plus, Dorie has fussier baking instructions. She says to only bake one tray at a time, and you have to spin it midway through baking. I know that's all in the interest of even baking, but it's an added step that I wouldn't appreciate if I was making these while Charlie was up and running around. Fortunately, he's napping.
I should be happy that I'm not compulsively eating one cookie off each tray as it comes out of the oven (for quality-control purposes, of course), but I'm not.
Conclusion: I love Toll House. I like these. Toll House reigns supreme.
Sometimes you just can't improve on a classic! Your cookies look great!
ReplyDeleteHmm...fussy, thin and delicate? No thanks. I'll stick with Toll House then.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me soooo happy to know Toll House still reigns supreme. I was never a huge chocolate chip cookie fan (yeah it's weird,I know) but my mom really was the Ultimate Toll House Cookie Worshipper, and she ALWAYS made Toll House cookies my whole life,from the 1960's when I was growing up through the 1990's when her grandson Eric was growing up, including big batches at halloween and Christmas and birthdays -really any holiday or family occasion- I think it was all just a ruse, and a perfect and convenient excuse to bake them just to eat at least a dozen cookies herself :)
ReplyDeleteYour grandmother had excellent taste. I'm powerless in the presence of Toll House cookies. I usually end up throwing them out after two days to keep myself from consuming the entire batch. Charlie seems to take after Matt, in that they're happy with only one cookie at a time. That leaves an awful lot of cookies for me to eat.
ReplyDeleteHa...I know you would have bonded on the cookies- its my mom who was the toll house queen, - Eric's grandma (his nana)
ReplyDeleteIn fact the cookies now remind me of her, now that she is no longer here.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I meant your mom. Fingers went faster than my brain.
ReplyDeleteWell even though I am not mad about chocolate chip cookies I do like them with some milk, and can't imagine throwing them out just to protect my waistline. I bet they freeze ok if they are tightly wrapped- and a plateful is always so gooey good reheated in the microwave for about a minute :)
ReplyDeleteMy hubby's gold standard is the Tollhouse recipe, too...I don't think he'd like the flatter more fragile Dorie cookies! (He'd eat them in a pinch, though :)).
ReplyDeleteToooooooll House! I'm with you, my friend. Stick with the classics. They look super yummy though :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this one. I really hoped that I would like this recipe but I didn't. Everyone has their own idea of the perfect CCC.
ReplyDelete