Cookiegasm

"Oooohhhhhhhhh," groaned the July 4th BBQ guest as he bit into one of these. He then proceded to eat five more, and leaned over to whisper in my ear before he left, "I'm going to write you a poem about these." Mind you, this was a normal, red-blooded kind of dude not given to fripperies like poetry-writing. The other red-blooded male who moaned when he ate one hugged me for about 10 minutes. In front of his beautiful French girlfriend. Who, once she had one too, was more than understanding.

When I initially developed this recipe, I had brought good chocolate chips with me (Ghiradelli 60% cocoa bittersweet, the King of all Chips) and was thinking of a way to use them. I also found myself missing the white chocolate-dried cherry-walnut cookies from the Ogilvy cafeteria. So after some messing around on the Internet to find insider’s tips on better cookie baking (because I never liked my own chocolate chip cookies), I came up with these. I did cut back on the granulated sugar since there are so many sweet ingredients and I don’t like overly cloying-sweet cookies. The Web was really useful on the hints. Sour cream, you say? More fat, you gasp? Hell, yeah…they really worked to keep the cookies moist. And thanks to the Bible of food science, Cook's Illustrated, for pointing out that sugar is what makes cookies deliciously chewy, from the melting and caramelization processes.


Fancy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp kosher salt or 1 tsp table salt
½ cup butter
¼ cup oil
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 T vanilla, rum or Grand Marnier
2 large eggs, 1 separated
1 heaping T sour cream
1 package bittersweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts [optional]
½ cup orange Craisins (dried cranberries) [optional]
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder [optional]

Preparation: Melt butter but don’t scorch (45 seconds in the micro is usually enough for refrigerator-cold butter). Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper.

Make batter: Mix butter, sugars, 1 whole cracked egg and one yolk (set white aside and feed to dog for dinner) and vanilla. Add flour one cup at a time for first 2 cups, stirring to incorporate after each cup. Mix baking soda and salt with last ¼ cup of flour and add, stirring well. Add five-spice powder if using. Add oil and sour cream and stir. Fold in chocolate chips, nuts and Craisins.

Bake cookies: Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, pressing a little to flatten. Refrigerate dough between batches. Bake for 16-20 minutes (check for solidity at 16 minutes; cookie should be firm but not rock-hard, but not totally gooey and squashy. If still too uncooked-like, leave in for 4 more minutes). Remove from oven, leave on cookie sheet for a minute, then transfer to wire rack to cool. Makes about 3 dozen cookies with some dough left over for eating.

This makes crispy, chewy cookies. If you want a more cakelike, tender cookie, leave in the extra egg white. A small, but amazing, difference!