Comments on: The New York Times chocolate chip cookies: smarter cookies?

By: kelli

kelli — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:47:22 +0000

Love the post! Want the cookies!!

Want the cookies?? Make the cookies!! (Really, they’re fun and SOSOSO good…) PJH

By: Cindy H

Cindy H — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:42:08 +0000

PJH, you posted wonderful pictures, and I’m really excited to try the sea salt on top method! Loved the line about it not being popcorn!
I have to admit we’ve always made cookies the traditional size - or smaller so they go further, but because of this post would now like to try the ‘5 to a cookie sheet’ size. I use only butter because my daughter likes a softer cookie. The refrigeration helps keep the cookie from spreading too much, as well.
The salt on top method reminds me of when chefs put a pat of butter on top of a grilled steak to bring out the flavour.
At any rate, you’ve certainly gotten a lot of responses, and maybe that’s because I’ve never read about or met a person who didn’t love Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Cindy H
http://www.jbkpottery.com

By: Apply food stamp

Apply food stamp — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:05:35 +0000

I wanted to research this subject and write a paper. Your post what a thousand words would not. Nice job.

By: Pat Punim

Pat Punim — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:16:30 +0000

Dear PJ,
You requested a recipe for bialys in the chocolate chip cookie blog, and I think I can help. Originally from Long Island, but now living in California (where they don’t know from bialys), my bialy starved family would stock up on bialys whenever we returned to New York. When our local bialy bakery changed ownership, the bialys were no longer authentic or worth carrying them back to CA. Ordering online from H&H bagels in NYC resulted in authentic looking bialys but they weren’t so fresh. I found three recipes for bialys, the best of which was from George Greenstein’s book, “Secrets of a Jewish Baker” which is no longer in print but available used on Amazon.com. After trial and error, and tweaking the recipes, the resulting recipe is very close, but would benefit from a professional evaluation from you. My greatest problem is that sometimes the large holes within are perfect, and sometimes the crumb is too fine. I find that the wetter the dough, the better the holes. So here’s the recipe, which makes 16 bialys:

Bialys

2 cups warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
3 teaspoons sugar
5 1/2 cups of bread flour (King Arthur of course)
2 3/4 teaspoons of kosher salt
bread flour for dusting
cornmeal for baking sheets
oil or cooking spray for greasing bowl

Topping
1/4 - 1/2 cup of dried, minced onion flakes
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Place warm water in bowl of mixer, add yeast and let sit for one minute
Add 1 cup of flour, stir, and wait 10 minutes
Add remaining flour, then salt, and mix with bread hook for 10 - 12 minutes
While the dough is kneading, add warm water to the dry minced onion and set aside

Knead by hand until smooth, then place into large oiled bowl and turn to coat
Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray, and allow to rise for 30 minutes
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
Press out air with your fingers and allow to rise until doubled in size, 20 - 30 minutes.

Drain the minced onion

Punch down the dough, divide into fourths, roll into ropes and cut into four pieces each rope. I weigh them to be sure they are even in size. Roll into balls. Cover and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
Roll each ball into a 3 - 4 inch circle. If the dough resists rolling, allow it to rest and go on to the next piece. When all are rolled, take each one and gently stretch it to have a slightly irregular shape, and place onto lightly cornmeal dusted baking pans (I use parchment for easier clean-up, but still use the cornmeal).

Cover with either flour rubbed cloths or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray, and allow to rise until puffy. When you can see some good sized bubbles within, add the teaspoon of oil and the pinch of salt to the drained minced onion. Place an indentation into the center of the bialy (press hard but not through the dough) so that there is a one inch rim of dough surrounding a flattened center (I use a shot glass to press). Place
the minced onion mixture into the center of each bialy. Lightly dust tops of dough with additional bread flour to make them look more authentic.

Bake without steam for 15 - 20 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

I hope you’ll make these and let me know of any changes to improve the recipe. Love reading your blog and recipes.
Pat Punim

Pat, I’m dying to try these - thanks for doing most of the work already! Coincidentally, we just started carrying Secrets of a Jewish Baker again - carried it long ago. We have it online as of Monday, new copies, not used. I know it’s cheaper on Amazon, but sometimes, if you’re one of those who doesn’t deal with Amazon - we have it, too. I’ll let you know how these come out- thanks again. PJH

By: Ann Weber

Ann Weber — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:09:33 +0000

I like the NYT cookies very much but it seems to me that the method could be improved upon. I had to let the chilled dough soften a bit as it could not be scooped when so cold. I used the very expensive Guittard (74%) chocolate discs and, while wonderful, there was waaaaaay too much chocolate and it overwhelmed the cookie. Next time, a very good - smaller - chip will be used. I baked the cookies smaller than the recipe and reduced the baking time. A 5 incher is overkill and a bit nauseating! The salt was a nice touch. It seems that all purpose flour would do just as well. Key to me was the better chocolate than I am used to buying. By the way, I froze half the dough - already formed into balls - and baked them today. Just as good!

By: viatebut

viatebut — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:33:59 +0000

Thank you

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:39:18 +0000

It might sound stupid but does it make a difference whether you used a paddle mixed or just a regular hand mixer?

Not stupid at all! Doesn’t matter what you use, so long as everything is THOROUGHLY mixed. Have at it! -PJH

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:13:37 +0000

Thanks for a great blog!

I have yet to bake these (dough in fridge now), but want to point out that the NYT/Torres recipe does not call for turning chocolate chips right-side up - it suggests flattening any disks of chocolate that are pointing up out of the dough. You may start an urban legend here!

David Leite, the author of the NYT article, didn’t mention it in his comment above, but he hangs his hat at another great food site and a wonderful recipe bank, Leite’s Culinaria, where the motto is “Hot food, dry wit.”

Ah, thanks for the clarification, Ian. And yes, I have an RSS feed to David’s site - it’s quite deluxe, with those luscious photos and of course the writing- PJH

By: Mary Beth

Mary Beth — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:16:38 +0000

I followed the Times recipe to a T and concluded that there’s too much coarse salt in the cookie dough. In fact, the salt so overwhelmed the dough that I couldn’t bring myself to sprinkle sea salt on top. I will try these again with much less coarse salt in the dough. I found the Valrhona chocolate feves in Whole Foods and loved the way they melted in the cookies. What a difference from the usual nonmelting chocolate chips/chunks!

By: Kari

Kari — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:32:25 +0000

PJ, recently my husband came home with a chocolate chip cookie he bought from a store somewhere (sacrilige!) It was tall and fluffy, almost cake-y, not crisp and not chewy. It seemed almost to have a ton of leavening or something. Most of my cookies flatten out like the above pics, and he has requested a cookie like the one he bought. Any suggestions? I have been surfing the web for inspiration and am trying the Alton Brown puffy recipe as we speak and although they look promising they aren’t achieving the height I’m looking for…

Sounds like a good goal, Kari - but I don’t actually have the solution for achieving it without doing some testing. I’d think they’d have an extra egg or two, for one; less butter; and perhaps less fat/more flour. In other words, more like cake then cookie. What if you tried dubbing around with the Berger Cookie recipe (”Baltimore’s Finest” blog)? They’re cake-like cookies. See what kind of ratios of ingredients might make your cookies taller/fluffier… Good luck - PJH