Cookie Theories

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Chief Longwind Of The North

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I will be making several types of cookies tonight, without recipes, to check out my cookie theories. I expect them to come out great, but have to prove them first before I can share info with all of my freinds here. The goal is to make some cookies that are chewy, with soft centers and crispy edges, more cake-like cookies, of both tender.soft, and crispy textures, and cookies made with various combinations of flour, sugar, oil, and water. Flavorings aren't as important because they don't affect the texture as much, and can be played with in a follow-up thread. I will share my results. I'm just in one of those engineering moods I get in occasionally. It's the engineer/scientist in me:rolleyes:.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
Can't wait to hear the results, GW. I guess that means I need to post my Nanaimo bar experiment as well (I am trying for 6 different flavours).
 
Did you know that broken cookies have no calories? Now that is a theory I would love to test out (and would love even better if it were true!)
 
Ok. First set of results:
Experiment: Determine the role that fat and flour play in cookie texture.
Hypothesis: Fat and sugar work together to create a chewy texture while flour adds loft and structure.

Experimental Recipe 1
1/8 cup each, white granulated sugar, dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt (flavor ingredient)
1/8 tsp. each baking powder and baking soda (leavening agents)
1 tsp. vanilla (water and flavor ingredient)
1 large egg
1 stick unsalted butter.

Cream sugars and butter. Whisk in egg, salt, and vanilla extract. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 9 minutes.

Result - Oily praline with great flavor and chewy texture. The result was chewey like caramel, but with a lightly crisp quality. No leavening observed.
Conclusion: Sugars melt and caramelize under heat. Egg protein binds the sugar particles and keeps them from hardening. The egg yolk was insufficient to imullsify the butterfat. There was no starch.protien structure to capture released gas from leavening agents. If less butter was used (cut in half), this would be a great recipe to make very thin pralines to add to ice cream.

Experimental Recipe 2
1/8 cup each, white granulated sugar, dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt (flavor ingredient)
1 tsp. vanilla (water and flavor ingredient)
1 large egg
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter.

Cream sugars and butter. Whisk in egg, salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, and flour. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 9 minutes.

Result: The flour absorbed some of the butter fat. Texture improved. Still, there was insufficient flour to give the cookies any body. The flavor was more that of a cookie than a praline. Still too gooey and thin.

Experiment 3
Experimental Recipe 2
1/8 cup each, white granulated sugar, dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt (flavor ingredient)
1 tsp. vanilla (water and flavor ingredient)
1 large egg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter.

Cream sugars and butter. Whisk in egg, salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, and flour. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 9 minutes.

Produced a cookie that was very much like the thin and chewy Toll-House Cookie. The additional flour gave the cookie a much better rising ability while maintaining a chewy, moist, and tender texture.

Stay tuned. I'll be doing more experimentation today.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
Experiment 3

For this experiment, I made the Toll-House Cookie from Nestle, but without the chocolate chips and nuts. The cookie texture was exactly the same as the original recipe in texture and flavor, except without the chocolate chips and nuts, as I expected them to be. Then I figured out the multiplier to scale everything down, to make about as much batter as I did for the other experiments. Here are the ingredient amounts:

¼ cup. All purpose flour
¼ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp baking soda
½ stick butter, softened to room temperature
2 ½ tbs. Butter
2 tbs. Each Granulated and Brown Sugar
¼ tsp. Vanilla extract
½ beaten small egg

As you can see by comparing the above listed ingredients to the experiment 3 ingredients, the fat and sugar content has decreased dramatically with respect to the amount of flour. This gave the cookie more binding power because of the increased starch and protein content. The cookies were still great tasting, but held together better, and had more of the cookie flavor we know and love. The baking soda did react lightly to the egg, and the cookies rose a little. In fact, they looked beautiful when they first came out of the oven. As they cooled, the texture collapsed and my wife was rewarded with her favorite cookie type, flat, soft, and slightly chewey. If these cookies are cooked longer than 9 minutes at 375' F, they a hard, crispy cookie, and the flavor becomes darker. That is, think of the flavor taken on by a roux when allowed to brown, verses used blonde or white. That's the flavor you get as the four darkens from longer baking times.

I'll have to wait until Tuesday for the next experiment as that's pay-day and I ran out of eggs. Then I'll increase the water content and add baking powder. I suspect that the cookies will be thicker, lighter, more cake-like. And again, from past experience, I know that cooking time determines whether a cookie is soft or hard.

If anyone else wants to join in this learning experience, join in and give us your results, based on comparison and observation. Please take time to think about the results, and why the cookies texture changed with the ingredients you use.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
Experiment 3


If anyone else wants to join in this learning experience, join in and give us your results, based on comparison and observation. Please take time to think about the results, and why the cookies texture changed with the ingredients you use.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


GW, I simply can not make a small batch of cookies:ROFLMAO:

and I thought you were going to say you ran out of butter, not eggs...got a cow in your back yard?
 

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