Cooking For Engineers

mumu33 · Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 51

Has anyone heard that if you make a choc. chip cookie using low speed thru out recipe and use only cold butter you would produce a thick and chewy cookie. Just starting out in baking and was wandering if this remark is true? I been using room temp. butter, but think I will try cold now. And if this makes such a big difference in a cookie using low speed thru out recipe wander why its not said more often? Any comments appr..

Mumu

Michael Chu · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)

This is generally true for most butter based cookies. You can use room temperature butter (and I suggest that you do) when making the batter, but refrigerate the dough balls on the pan for at least fifteen minutes before baking. A lower temperature will require longer cooking time but usually results in a cookie that stands up a bit more than if you did it at high heat. (My theory is that it takes the butter longer to melt and therefore exterior of the dough has more time to cook a little and keep it's shape instead of flowing out.)

You can take a look at my peanut butter cookie recipe to see how the two methods of baking result in two different textures with the exact same dough.

mumu33 · Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 51

Thank you, are you agreeing that you can do the whole recipe procedure on low speed?

Mumu

Michael Chu · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)

Wait, I may have misunderstood. I was thinking low speed as in cooking speed.

It doesn't really matter about the mixing of the dough - you don't want to over mix it because the flour can form gluten, but even on high speed it's pretty unlikely given the amount of butter used in butter-based cookies. Don't worry about mixer speed and do start with softened butter. If you start with hard btuter, it'll never mix in. As soon as it's smooth, form into balls, place on your sheet pan, and refrigerate.

mumu33 · Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 51

can some one tell me why some people when make say choc. chip cookies throw everything tog. in one bowl,does this produce a different cookie then when you take the time to do the steps? What is the reason for this ,besides being faster. New to baking and was wandering about this . any comments would be appr.

Mumu