Saturday, June 6, 2009

A new chocolate chip cookie recipe

I've made chocolate chip cookies, on average, once a week for about 15 years. My previous chocolate chip cookie posting is my favorite recipe and the one that took me years to perfect. From reading other blogs, I see other folks are just as obsessed about finding the perfect recipe as I am. Every time I come across your chocolate chip cookie stories and recipes, I read them and am then excited to try a whole new recipe. That is what happened here. This recipe is from the blog: conversationswithacupcake.blogspot.com. It caught my eye for some reason. I mean, most all chocolate chip cookie recipes are somewhat the same but this one had one unique ingredient - cornstarch. Hmmm...that sounds interesting. It's supposed to be a copycat recipe of Levain cookies but I cannot give my opinion on that because I have never had the opportunity to enjoy a Levain cookie. I went to NYC just last week and that is a bakery that I didn't get a chance to visit. Darn. But anyway, these cookies are delicious and somewhat cakey. It seems that many of you do not care for cakey cookies but I happen to like that texture. I thought for sure that these cookies would bake up flat because the cookie dough was not very firm. In fact, the dough was so thin that I added an extra 1/2 cup flour to it. Besides that change, the only other change I made was to substitute part of the brown sugar with granulated sugar. I like the combination of both. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups brown sugar but I put 1 1/4 brown sugar & 1/4 granulated sugar. Besides those changes, I followed this recipe. Oh, another thing that's unique about this recipe is that it calls for a full tablespoon of baking powder. That seemed like a lot to me but I added it. They are baked at a temperature of 390 degrees (my oven bakes hot so I set my temperature at 375). I usually bake my cookies really low, like 310 degree. I would definitely make these cookies again but I'm still a fan of my original recipe. These cookies kind of remind me of the chocolate chip cookies that have the added instant vanilla pudding in the dough. I have a post of those also. These are definitely delicious but they have no crunch factor - not even on the edges. Maybe if I had baked them longer they might be a bit crunchy but I always remove my cookies when they are slightly underdone. Because these cookies are done fairly quickly in the oven, the chips stay intact and do not get very melty but I guess all cookies cool, so all chips get firm again anyway. If you have tried this recipe, let me know what you thought.


I'm not exactly sure of the effect of cornstarch in chocolate chip cookies but it's unique!




It seems every time I step into the kitchen I always have one of the boys wanting to "help" me.
I always say yes but I'm sure you can guess that it really slows the process down.
I make a point of letting them know how much I appreciate their skills. They usually get bored really quick anyway and then it's back to playing.


These cookies browned very nicely. The bottoms are a nice golden brown.

They aren't the thickest chocolate chip cookies I've made but they certainly aren't thin.

This cookie is still fairly warm and notice that the chocolate chips are not melted.


Call me Le Vain Copy Cat Cookies

from conversationswithacupcake. blogspot.com


1 c. butter

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

Cream all above ingredients until fluff-a-licious.

Top with:

2 1/2 c. flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

**SECRET INGREDIENT***

1 Tbsp. Cornstarch

Mix all ingredients with an electric beater until incorporated and a thick, creamy dough is created. Then mix in:

2 cups of {nearly} crushed walnuts

3 cups of {good quality, small} semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat again with electric mixer. Pour onto countertop and knead dough to completely mix dough (this tip comes from the Levain gals themselves.)

Gently pull lemon-sized hunks of dough. Keep the dough loose and air. Place mounds on cookie sheets.

Bake 390 degrees (read: just above 375, not quite 400)for 10-12 minutes, or until the tips of the cookies have turned light brown.

Remove from cookie sheet. Cool for just a moment.







1 comment:

Joyce said...

They look good and thanks for all your notes. I find that when I bake in a gas oven my cookies get a better rise to them then when I bake in my electric oven. I still use the recipe on the back of the toll house cookies but I like the one with the pudding too. I prefer a crunchy choc chip cookie so I leave them in the oven a bit longer. I also bake one tray at a time which takes longer but in my oven it makes a better cookie.