Soft Baked Cookies - What?

[Andy M.]

I've been around for a while and I've eaten a lot of cookies over the years.

I can still remember the chocolate chip cookies my mom baked fresh out of the oven all soft and gooey with melted chocolate chips that got all over your fingers as you ate them. The cookies were so soft they deformed as you gobbled them up.

They were only soft for a while. As they cooled they firmed up and became crispy. The rest of the batch was eaten crispy with a cold glass of whole milk. The only other way these same cookies were ever soft again was if there was a really humid day. Now, you can bake or buy soft cookies that stay soft throughout their time on this earth (I know this is not a recent development).

One of the things that makes my SO so special is that she always surprises me with little things she knows I like. Today it was a package of Pepperidge Farms Soft Baked Nantucket Dark Chocolate Cookies. Pepperidge Farms makes good stuff. Their Raspberry Milanos are among the best things ever baked commercially. I also really like their Chesapeake cookies - crispy chocolate chip cookies with pecans. (Love the Chesapeakes, not the Nantuckets).

So I sat down with a cold glass of milk to enjoy these Nantucket Soft Baked Cookies I had never had before. There are only eight cookies in the bag so as long as you don't run out of milk, the bag has a short life, except...

...these cookies are gross! I don't know who thought eternally/unnaturally soft cookies were a good idea but they are not. You cannot prolong the sensuous impact of a freshly baked cookie right out of the oven. It's meant to be a fleeting pleasure. These forever-soft cookies give me the impression of being old and damp.

Am I alone in my dislike for soft cookies? Is there anyone else out there who feels as I do?

 

[Dawgluver]

You had such a lovely story, gave me such a wonderful feeling....ahhh, memories....until the end! Yikes! Def will not buy these!

 

[bakechef]

Manufactured "soft" cookies are usually pretty terrible in my experience. They often have a very stale flavor to them. I do enjoy Pepperidge farm crisp cookies, but the soft ones aren't good, neither are Keebler.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I like the cookies from Costco...right now it's so warm out that the chocolate chips are gooey and the cookies are crispy soft. Crisp on the outside, and softer in the center.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I am a fan of soft, cake like cookies but I do not make them very often. My mother used to make large soft molasses cookies that were called "cow pies", large sugar cookies and chocolate walnut.

It seems like out of the thousands of recipes floating around the world people only make chocolate chip, oatmeal and peanut butter.

I tend to make brownies, blondies and lemon squares because I am too lazy to keep filling the cookie trays and running to the oven every fifteen minutes.

Cookie season is almost here!

 

[Zhizara]

I don't bake, so I buy cookies occasionally. My problem is just the opposite. I buy oatmeal or gingersnaps, and they are so hard, I leave the package open just so they will soften up!

 

[Aunt Bea]

I don't bake, so I buy cookies occasionally. My problem is just the opposite. I buy oatmeal or gingersnaps, and they are so hard, I leave the package open just so they will soften up!

Look for Anna's North America Ginger Thins.

They are a thin crispy melt in your mouth gingersnap. The package is small, once I get started it can be a single serving.

 

[vitauta]

andy, i think we need to check out this recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies submitted by betty r. about one year ago in a cookie thread titled "chewy chocolate chip cookies". your childhood cookie memories awakened some of my own. betty's pictures of her chewy cookies (broken open exposing their incredible insides) are a perfect snapshot of my own childhood memories of me and them. just take one look. you'll be rushing to get out the bowls and pans to make some yourself....

 

[Andy M.]

andy, i think we need to check out this recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies submitted by betty r. about one year ago in a cookie thread titled "chewy chocolate chip cookies". your childhood cookie memories awakened some of my own. betty's pictures of her chewy cookies (broken open exposing their incredible insides) are a perfect snapshot of my own childhood memories of me and them. just take one look. you'll be rushing to get out the bowls and pans to make some yourself....

My point is that cookies are supposed to be crispy (my opinion). Softness is only supposed to last until the cookies cool from baking.

 

[purple.alien.giraffe]

Hmmm, for me, I like chocolate chip cookies that are crisp on the edges and chewy/soft once you get to the center. For sugar and oatmeal cookies I like them to stay soft with the sugar cookies being just a little chewy. Shortbread and lemon cookies I like to be crisp. Peanut butter cookies I like either way.

I don't like name brand soft cookies but I do like soft cookies if they come from a good bakery.

 

[Kayelle]

My point is that cookies are supposed to be crispy (my opinion). Softness is only supposed to last until the cookies cool from baking.

I nuke my cookies for a few seconds.......they come back to the same texture as straight from the oven.

 

[Fabiabi]

I've never understood the soft cookie, or the people that buy them. I don't eat alot of cookies but I know I definitely prefer the solid sort not those bendy things.

 

[buckytom]

i'm with you, andy. there's only a short window of oppurtunity to have soft cookies.

the unnaturally ever-soft ones taste kinda funny. kinda raw, like they weren't baked enough and have too many preservatives in them to keep them soft.


i'm gonna have to look for the raspberry milanos. thanks.
double chocolate milanos are my current faves.