The flat cookie conundrum

My underlying goal when cooking and baking is to learn something new every time I’m in the kitchen. I’m always tweaking recipes and trying new ones, and hate the feeling of being “stagnant” in my cooking. That is, going through the same repertoire of recipes without variation. The chemistry experiment-like accuracy that baking requires long interfered with my desire to a) not follow recipes and b) always change something about recipes I do follow. In truth, I just needed to learn more about the chemistry behind baked goods. From there, changing is informed by science as well as cooking instinct. For example, last year I was feeling disappointed by cookie recipes that turn out flat. I wanted to figure out the secret to a moist, cake-like cookie that chews instead of crunches. Funny since the flat cookie is what I grew up on. I felt pretty sure it didn’t have to do with cooking time or temperature, amount of leavening, or amount of egg (that was an experiment gone horribly wrong, think cookie crepe that won’t come off the baking sheet).

Finally I have come as close as ever to figuring out why: The temperature of the butter. While listening to a call-in radio show with a cooking expert I learned that when butter is melted or even softened too much it loses its ability to hold the air that lends fluffiness to baked goods. The expert recommended using butter as directly from the refrigerator as you can. This has worked well for me, though I usually soften it in my hands a bit before adding it to the bowl. From there I cut it, as with pastry, to increase the surface area, then proceed to cream it into the sugar. This cutting and creaming wasn’t even necessary with a molasses ginger cookie recipe I followed. The key here was to beat the butter, sugar, egg, and molasses, avoiding the clump-of-sugar-and-butter-stuck-to-the-beater problem that sometimes happens with cold butter. After many goes with the chocolate chip cookie recipe and one with the molasses ginger, I am flat cookie-free and loving it! The other reasons that might contribute to this success are my use of about 50 percent whole wheat flour in these recipes, as well as the proportion of butter to flour. I did notice that in these two cookie recipes the dough is quite dry and crumbly. Not a problem, as long as you can shape it into a ball it turns out beautifully. If you are still fighting this battle try what I did and see if it works for you. If you have found some other solution let me know!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Adapted from allrecipes.com//Recipe/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients:

• 1 c. unsalted butter
• 1 c. white sugar
• 1 c. packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 c. chocolate chips
• 3 c. flour (1.5 c. all-purpose flour and 1.5 c.whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. hot water
• 0.5 tsp. salt
• chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Cream butter and sugars until smooth
• Beat in eggs one at a time
• Stir in vanilla
• Dissolve baking soda in hot water then add to batter along with salt
• Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts
• Drop by teaspoonfulls onto ungreased baking sheets
• Bake approx. 10 minutes until edges are brown

Ginger Crinkles

(Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 9th edition)

Ingredients:

• 2.5 c. flour (1.25 c.. all-purpose flour and 1.25 c. whole wheat flour)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 0.5 tsp. ground cloves
• 0.25 tsp. salt
• 1 c. packed brown sugar
• 0.75 c. butter (cold)
• 0.25 c. molasses
• 1 egg
• 1-2 tsp. grated fresh ginger root, depending on preference

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F
• Stir together dry ingredients and salt
• beat remaining ingredients well
• Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture and beat well
• Form into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets
• Bake approximately 10 minutes until edges start to brown