An older gentleman in our church passed away late last week, and his funeral is this Friday (Don is a pallbearer). I was asked to make some chocolate-chip cookies for after the service. Lots of chocolate-chip cookies.
For this task, I took the best chocolate-chip cookie recipe I've ever found, and multiplied it. It's kind of an awkward recipe to multiply, since it starts with 11 tablespoons of butter. I had a full two pounds of butter I wanted to use, so I had to figure out the ratios. A little cross-multiply-and-divide (for those who remember that classic high-school math trick) and I determined the recipe needed to be ramped up by 5.5 times.
I got the original recipe from a now-defunct blog called (oddly) "A Girls' Guide to Guns and Butter." The blog is gone, but the recipe lives on. Here's the original:
• 11 tablespoons butter, melted (hot is fine)
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar (do not pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup but scoop it out gently and simply level it off – it should be loose and fluffy, or you will end up using too much and your cookies will be tough)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Dash of vanilla
• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Here's my 5.5x calculations, made a bit awkward due to the eggs and yolks:
The secret, apparently, is to melt the butter rather than merely soften it.
Brown sugar, white sugar, salt, vanilla, and baking soda:
Adding the whole eggs and egg yolks:
Mixing in the flour and melted butter:
Ready to add the chocolate chips:
This is the first batch. It's been a long time since I made this recipe, and I swiftly realized the raw cookies have to be much smaller, and more widely spaced, so they don't all meld together. I reserved the first batch for us; delicious, but not "pretty."
Thereafter I got the hang of making the cookies "pretty." The cookies are baked in a low oven (325F) for anywhere from 12 to 16 minutes, depending on oven particulars. I baked and baked, bagging up the cooling cookies, until the dough was gone. (The blue-lidded tub holds the misshapen first batch.)
This really is one of the best chocolate-chip cookie recipe I've come across. Just don't add too much raw dough – or overcrowd it – on the cookie sheet.
You must have made those cookies for some of those folks before since they were requested them. Thanks for the recipe.
ReplyDeletelooks yummy!
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of cookies! How many dozen?
ReplyDeleteI didn't count. Maybe ... eight dozen?
Delete- Patrice
For family I spread the cookie dough out on a large sheet, bake it , and cut it into the sizes we prefer. Quick and easy.
ReplyDeleteTalking about now defunct blogs can you give an update to the Alaska homesteader whose husband passed away in and unfortunate accident?I have always wondered what happened to her and how she learned to flourish as a single mother in the wild.
ReplyDeleteThat was Jenny Lamb, and sadly I don't know. The last time I was in touch with her was June of 2013, when she came to visit. She had remarried and expressed some reservations about her new husband, and that's the last I know of what happened to her.
Delete- Patrice
Thats dangerous , all I'd need is a pot coffee
ReplyDeleteI'm in the process of making the cookies and I don't see the amount of salt to use in the regular version, only the ramped up one. My math is terrible so forgive me for not being able to figure it out. When you get a chance will you please add the correct amount of salt. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSorry about that! Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the regular recipe.
Delete- Patrice
Thank you!
Delete