The Great Chocolate Cookie Experiment of 2008

I recently read an article in the NY Times about their search for the "best" chocolate chip cookie. Anytime you put the words "best," "chocolate," and "cookie" together in the same sentence, you immediately have my attention. The food writers at the Times concocted their own version of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, which they finalized after trying several different variations. I am a confirmed cookie-a-holic, so when I saw this recipe, I was all over it.

If you know me, you know that I don't do anything half-assed when it comes to cookies. So, I decided I needed to conduct my own cookie experiment. In addition to the NY Times cookie, I needed a "control" cookie to serve as a comparison. What could be better than the tried-and-true Nestle Toll House cookie? Voila, a cookie experiment was born.

After compiling all of the ingredients, I woke up on Sunday morning and headed to my kitchen. One of the main differences between the two recpies is that the NYT cookie requires you to make the cookie dough in advance, and then refrigerate it for 24-72 hours before baking (36 hours is ideal). The Toll House cookie can be baked immediately, so I started with that. Everything went well, until I took the cookies out of the oven. They were oddly flat. They had spread way too much in the oven. They tasted good, but they had a very fragile, crumbly texture. I've made these cookies before, and I never had this problem in the past. What gives? After consulting with the internet, it seems like my butter was too soft. (The recipe says "softened butter." What else was I supposed to do??) For the second half of the batch, I lined the cookie sheets with parchment paper, which helped alleviate the spreading problem. But I still had two dozen crumbly, weird-looking (but tasty) cookies. So much for taking them into the office to share with my co-workers. Hubz suggested that we eat them crumbled over vanilla ice cream. I saved a dozen of the normal-looking cookies for my taste test.

(Yummy balls of cookie dough; Oddly-shaped Nestle Toll House cookies)

I also prepared the dough for the NYT cookie on Sunday morning, but I had to wait until Monday night to bake them. Unlike the Toll House cookies, this batch baked perfectly.

MMMMM COOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, momentary lapse of reason.

After personally eating a dozen cookies from these two batches, I decided it was too dangerous to keep them all around the house, so I brought two huge containers of cookies into work. I asked my co-workers to vote on their favorite cookie. They were willing to make the sacrifice to help with my scientific research.

Based on the results of my double-blind controlled research, I have concluded that the the New York Times cookie wins the Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment of 2008! Take that, Nestle Toll House! Personally, I think these are some of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever eaten. Refrigerating the dough does something magical to its chemical composition. Using dark chocolate and sprinkling the cookies with sea salt puts them over the top.

Here's the winning recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html

Published: July 9, 2008
Adapted from Jacques Torres

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons
(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

A sure-fire crowd pleaser

This is possibly the funniest video ever. If this doesn't make you laugh, then I've got nothing. Two words: narcoleptic dachshund.




I know this is "filler," but my next blog post will detail the Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment of 2008, complete with photos and recipes, so it's taking me some time to put it together.

Public bathing

I live in an urban area - technically, it's a suburb, but it's an urban "up-and-coming" suburb. There's a town square that has been developed with shops, restaurants, bars, a couple of movie theaters, and a green area. In the middle of the town square, there's a large courtyard with an equally large fountain. This fountain sits directly in front of a long row of shops and restaurants that have outdoor seating. In a perfect world, it would be a nice, relaxing place to sit and do some people-watching.

Kids love fountains. I get that. They're drawn to the splashing water like moths to a flame. When I was a kid, I'm sure my parents had to grab me and stop me from jumping into a few fountains. But they did stop me. My parents never dressed me up in a swim suit, grabbed a few water noodles and beach towels, drove downtown, and encouraged me to splash around in the public wishing well. Because that would have been wrong. And very, very tacky.

So I'm baffled why local parents have decided that the public fountain downtown is a swimming pool/playground for their kids. Every weekend during nice weather, this fountain is full of kids dressed in swimsuits, splashing and running around. It's one thing if you let your kid indulge himself *once* and let him splash around, or maybe just get his feet wet. But to actually premeditate it, dress your kid up in a swim suit, and take him there for the sole purpose of playing in the fountain? And even worse, sometimes the ADULTS also dress up in swim suits, so they can splash around, too. No no no no no! What ever happened to kiddie pools and backyard sprinklers? Or even community swimming pools? (I know we have several around here.) I know I shouldn't take this sort of thing personally, but every time I see it, it pings my tacky meter. Maybe I'll understand it when I have kids.


(photos courtesy of the New York Times)

Get her a dictionary, STAT!

I've started to notice that I overuse certain words. I think I use them much more than the average person. And these aren't intellectual, SAT-type words that will impress people. No, I overuse words like "awesome," "dude," "ridiculous," and "cripes!" I'm worried I'm starting to sound like Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

Baby on Board signs

Can someone please explain the point of these signs? Am I supposed to drive more carefully because you may have a baby in your car? "I was going to smash right into your rear bumper, but since I see you have a Baby on Board sign on your car, I will suddenly become a better driver and avoid hitting you." Is that the thought process? Are they implying that it's ok to hit a car with adults in it? I don't get it.

The Cheesecake Factory

I like cheesecake as much as the next person, so while I was out running errands with my husband a couple of weeks ago, and he suggested we go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, I went along with it. I hadn't been there in years, and I couldn't remember much about the place, but I figured I would at least get some good cheesecake out of it.

We had to wait 15 minutes to get seated, which was kind of ridiculous for a bland chain restaurant in the 'burbs, but it gave me time to peruse their monsterous menu. The Cheesecake Factory menu has full-page third-party advertisements inside. It looks like a magazine. It also has page numbers! Page numbers, people! The menu is literally 30 pages long. That is just crazy. I was starting to think that this place falls into the "jack of all trades, master of none" category.

I was halfway through the menu when we were seated at our table. I remembered that CF portions are huge, so I tried to combat that by ordering a salad. This was the largest salad I have ever seen in my entire life. I think there was an entire head of lettuce in there. Thank goodness I asked for my trough of dressing on the side. Despite its size, the salad was just ok. Honestly, I could replicate the same exact thing at home, with fresher ingredients.

I was really looking forward to dessert. This place has an entire cheesecake menu. I ordered the "tres leches cheesecake," because I absolutely adore tres leches. It's one of my favorite desserts in the entire world. I wasn't sure how it would work in cheesecake form, but I had high expectations. Unfortunately, they were not met. The cake did not look or taste anything like tres leches. It was more like a layer of regular NY-style cheesecake on top of a layer of vanilla pound cake. Mediocre at best.

This was a good reminder of why I usually don't eat at big chain restaurants. I'm amazed that The Cheesecake Factory is so popular. People will literally wait over an hour for a table there. I'm sure some of their cheesecakes are good, and I can understand ordering a slice to go, but the overall experience is not worth it.

IKEA

I've purchased my share of items from IKEA, especially when I was a poor college student. But I appreciate IKEA for what it is. It's a store full of really cheap, often poorly-constructed, furniture, accessories, and junk. I have an IKEA bookshelf that is partly made out of cardboard. I have a desk from IKEA, and while it actually looks pretty nice, it has literally fallen into pieces on more than one occasion. I lust after the nice furniture I see in other stores. But I know some people - people with actual paychecks who can afford real furniture - who love IKEA. I don't get it. Maybe I don't appreciate Swedish design (is that an oxymoron?).

Not overrated: Krazy glue.

Batman movies

None of these movies have been exceptional. Not even The Dark Knight. I will admit that Dark Knight wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't Oscar-worthy. It was acceptable for what it was - namely, a movie based on a comic book.

Also overrated: comic books.

Chinese gymnasts

The judges for the women's gymnastics competition in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics have been favoring the Chinese gymnasts since the beginning of the competition. If media allegations of the underage (under 16-years-old) Chinese gymnasts are true, then these little girls should be forced to give back their medals. It is ridiculous that the IOC has declined to investigate these claims of fraud. http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=reu-gymnasticschina_pix&prov=reuters&type=lgns.

In another example of blatant favoritism, the Chinese gymnast who participated in the vault finals literally fell down on her knees during her landing, but she still received the bronze medal, pushing American Alicia Sacramone to fourth place. Additionally, there was a tie for first place in the finals for the uneven bars competition, between Chinese He Kexin and American Nastia Liukin. Instead of awarding two gold medals, the judges gave the gold to the Chinese gymnast on the basis of a strange set of tie braking rules. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2008/08/tie_goes_to_chinese_gymnast_in.html?hpid=topnews.

I always love watching the Olympics, but the gymnastics competition is a joke this year.

Pinot something

Ever since the movie Sideways came out, people have become obsessed with Pinot Noir. Personally, I think Pinot Noir is extremely overrated. I prefer bigger reds, like Syrahs, Zinfandels, and Cabernets. I know taste is an extremely personal thing, but I honestly do not understand the current popularity of this type of wine.

Pinot Grigio, on the other hand, is delicious.