Sunday, December 30, 2012

cups or grams? Chocolate Chunk Cookies v.3.0


Background. I received a kitchen scale over the holidays. I've been wanting one since receiving Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook, which usually lists ingredients with both weight and volume measurements. Most notably, however, the bread recipes requiring bread sponge are based in weight and after awhile, eye-balling bread sponge seemed to get more and more inaccurate.

So last night, I decided to give my kitchen scale a try. Why experiment with one variable when one can experiment with two? Previous studies have suggested that chocolate chip cookies are best when the dough has time to sit. See previous series of experiments including time test part one and recipe test part two (Torres recipe). The current study built upon previous experience but instead, used Joanne Chang's recipe for chocolate chunk cookies. Those who know me will be proud of me--I barely made any adjustments this first time around. The only piece I changed was chocolate chunk ratios out of practicality / what I had on hand. Yes, I actually followed directions. Shocking.

Methods.
1 c butter (2 sticks)
3/4c (150g) sugar
3/4c (165g) light brown sugar (I used dark, because I can't read directions)
2 eggs
1/2t vanilla extract (skipped because my fingers were too cold to open the bottle)
1c (140g) all purpose flour
1 c (150g) bread flour
1t baking soda
1/2t kosher salt (I used sea salt)
Chocolate--(Original recipe calls for 9 ounces/255g semisweet chocolate / about 1.5c chopped and 2.5oz/70g milk chocolate, chopped / about 1/2 c.) I didn't have this on hand and instead, used 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, put it on the kitchen scale, and added ghiradelli chocolate chips until the weight ended up at 255+70g. Then I chopped the chocolate up.

Results.


Good texture. Better after dough has been out for 12h.

Discussion.
Next steps include adding more sea salt (and buy vanilla).
Try doing a combination of the Torres recipe and this one...

Addendum: 
Reduced baking time and baked at 325 instead. MUCH better.


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