What's the secret to a good chocolate chip cookie recipe?

[HennysMom]

Nope - my recipe IS different

got it in front of me from the back of the Semi-Sweet bag:

Here it is and they do taste different than TollHouse:

Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip Cookies (yields 4 Doz)

2 1/4 c. flour AP
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups Ghiradelli Semi Sweet Chips
1 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Stir flour, baking soda and salt, set aside. In large bowl, cream butter, sugar and brown sugar at medium speed. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, mix on low until incorporated. Gradually blend dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Stir in chips and nuts. drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.

Not the same even from the Giradelli site - that recipe is for use of 60% Cocoa chips. I dont bake with salted butter - only unsalted. The added sugar content makes these cookies chewy, not cakey and the chocolate chips taste much different (to me) than Nestle ones. I prefer Ghiradelli over Nestle chips, they taste better to me, but each person has their own taste LOL.

Toll House Recipe:
Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ

TOLL HOUSE

Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

 

[consdrs]

Quote:
Yes
The reason I use refrigerated butter is because when I put it into my kitchen aid to cream it, in short order it makes it warm. warm dough makes flat cookies. besides I never think ahead far enough in advance to take it out. everything should be then chilled to solidify the butter.
ever wonder why the toll house cookies that come in the tube in the refrigerated section always come out so good? one small tube fits on one cold pan and it just came out of the refrigerator...

 

[lisahaschickens]

hmmm... that's so odd, I wonder why they have a different recipe on their website than on their bag. I, too, use the one on the bag, so maybe I've been using 1 cup of each sugar rather than 3/4 cup. Now I'm confused. I know I had compared them in the past and they were the same (like on the two websites)... but if your bag shows something different, I'm not sure what I've been using recently. I just know I use the one off the ghirardelli bag.

 

[lisahaschickens]

p.s. I can't check my bag because my DF (darling fiance) eats every chocolate chip in the house constantly. And then he complains when I can't make him cookies at the drop of a hat

silly boys.

Anyway, both recipes are good.

And yes, creaming the butter and sugars is important... a kitchen aid works well for it. It would be harder by hand, but certainly possible. Refrigerating the dough before baking cools it back down nicely no matter what.

 

[HennysMom]

I dont know - I thought it was odd too

Wonder if their "new" recipe? I just looked at the date on my bag from when I bought it (I put the empty bag in my recipe book LOL - hey good recipes are hard to come by

) and its dated 11/30/09 as a "use by" date.

Hmmm.. methinks its time to call Ghiradelli and figure out this mystery.

 

[lisahaschickens]

you know, it's funny. I've been using the recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli bag for a long time now... but the last batch I made (maybe a month ago?) was hands down the best I've ever made. My DF and I were both like - wow! I didn't think they could be better than usual, but these are AWESOME.

Maybe you're onto something and they've updated their recipe on the bag? I didn't notice the difference when making them, but when I baked them, we were even happier than normal.... I've always been happy with them, but they were excellent last time. Perhaps it's a new recipe.

If that's the case, then I recommend the new recipe to everyone on here. See above post from HennysMom for the recipe and note the difference between it and Tollhouse.

 

[mom'sfolly]

This is actually an experiment they do in high school around here. They vary the type of shortening and sugar in the toll house recipe and see what people like the most. Brown sugar gives you a softer cookie, butter, not margarine yeilds a soft cookie, and refrigerating the dough for an hour befor baking makes a higher cookie. Hope this helps. The flour can make a difference too. Unbleached flour is going to make a tougher cookie. Even how you buy your flour can make a difference. If you buy flour in a large bag (bigger than 8 lbs) it is more likely to be a higher protein flour, more suitable for bread than cookies or cakes. You might also try a pastry flour to see what kind of results you get. You can mail all the "mistakes" to me.

 

[lisahaschickens]

it is a good point about higher gluten content -

gluten is what makes bread "bready" or "chewy," which translates to "tough" in cookies, cakes, and pastry (like pie crust). Kneading is what activates gluten, which is why most recipes tell you to stop beating and to only GENTLY and BARELY mix in the the dry ingredients. Overmixing/beating in the flour is what will make for a tough cookie. Flours labeled "bread flour," "high protein flour," or "high gluten" flours all contain high gluten and make for wonderful bread, but lousy cookies. Regular, all-purpose, unbleached flour is best. Bleached flour is highly processed and undesirable. According to Alice Waters (one of the original food celebrities, and one of the top chefs, the world over), unbleached flour is superior in performance in all applications over bleached. I Agree. It's a bonus that you get food that is less-processed also.

p.s. all this cookie talk got me in the mood. My DF went and got me some more chips (because he eats all the ones I keep in the pantry) and I made the <new> recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli bag (as listed by HennysMom, above). It is the best. Better than Tollhouse. Don't use the one from the Ghirardelli link I provided, because it is their old recipe, which is the same as Tollhouse. Use the one on the bag. It is the best.