by Renee Shibuya
(our resident Master Chef!)
Growing up I was not a big fan of cookies and biscuits, I was more of a ‘decadent cake’ girl. As a result, my cookie skills have suffered badly. The biggest obstacle for me was always ‘creaming’ the butter. I hated waiting for it to soften, and it always seemed such an effort. When I was a teenager at school, there was no such thing as electric beaters, so everything had to be creamed by hand. Now my tastes have changed, I have been searching for the perfect cookie for quite some time. I have bought cookies from every shop I go to that sells them, and I have not yet come across one cookie that I thought was worth finishing. The question I began to ask myself was, “How hard is it??!!”. The answer, it appears, is “Quite hard!”. One of my favourite cookie recipes is a chocolate chip and peanut butter recipe, which comes out rather like shortbread, but the boys complain about the peanut butter, so I have endeavoured to find an equally scrummy chocolate chip cookie recipe. When it comes to favourites, we all have our own preference. Are you a soft and squishy type or a thin and crunchy?
After many trials of the numerous recipes I have at home from various books and magazines, I decided that there must be something better somewhere out there, so in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, I set out online to find some recipes. You would be surprised how many recipes claim to be the ‘best’! What I discovered was that the recipes differed little in their ingredients, a difference of baking powder here, soda there…more butter here, less there etc. However, what differed greatly was the method. Ranging from my dreaded softened butter/creaming method to simply melting the butter in the microwave (a preferred choice of mine!). The results were quite diverse. After tweaking the recipes to my taste, I have included here the winners of the family taste test: 3 of the most diverse ‘styles’ of cookie and their methods. 1. Soft and light 2. Thick and Crunchy 3. Thin and chewy. After eating batches of cookies I think I have decided that I would rather have shortbread after all, so I’ll let you be the judge!
*Editor’s note: please we would love to hear which one was the best 1. soft & light 2. thick & crunchy or 3. thin & chewy - so take the challenge and let us know - thank you
Soft and Light: Method: Creaming the butter. A little fiddly.
These cookies are soft and cake-like.
They flatten out on the edges and have a raised middle.
This makes a sticky batter, can be rolled by hand, but is messy.
Makes 27 Large Cookies (9 per tray=3 trays)
Ingredients:
1 block of butter (250g) 1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup white sugar 2 teaspoons hot water
1 cup packed brown sugar ½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs 2 cups chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (½ tsp cream of tartar) optional
3 cups all-purpose flour
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170°C (350°F).
Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with the salt. Stir in the flour, cream of tartar and chocolate chips. Drop large spoonfuls onto baking trays lined with baking paper. Bake for 10 mins or until the edges are browned.
Thick and Crunchy: Method: Melting the butter. Fewer steps. Less ingredients.
These cookies are thick and have a nice crunch. I liked the flavour the most out of these 2 recipes, but others in the family differed! These cookies kept their perfect shape.
Makes 12 large cookies (9 per tray= 2 trays).
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups plain flour ½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
100g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C (170°C fan-forced).
Sift the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl, add the sugars and the salt and mix. Add chocolate chips.
Place the melted butter, vanilla and egg in a small bowl and whisk. Pour into the flour mixture and stir until combined. Roll into balls, and place 4 cm apart on a tray lined with baking paper. Press the tops lightly with a fork (These shaped easily, like play dough). Bake for 20 mins
Thin and Chewy. Method: Melting the butter.
These
cookies were a favourite amongst family members, with references to the
‘Subway’ cookie. The chew is fantastic, but personally, I don’t like the taste
of the baking soda.
Makes 18 cookies (9 per tray = 2 trays)
Ingredients.
2 cups plain flour ½ tbsp vanilla extract
½ tsp baking soda 1 egg
½ tsp salt 1
egg yolk
170g butter, melted 2 cups chocolate chips
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
Method:
Preheat
oven to 165°C. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix the melted butter, and the brown and white sugar. Beat in
the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Add the sifted
ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookie dough
using 2 spoons to shape onto the baking tray. This makes a very wet and sticky
mixture so is not suitable for using hands. These cookies spread a lot so about
8 cm apart on the baking sheet is a good distance.
Bake for 20 mins.
Now, as mentioned above, my favourite cookie recipe is the peanut butter/chocolate chip recipe. Here it is minus the peanut butter. I added some naked ginger pieces, and the boys complained again, “What’s with the ginger mum??!”. They still managed to polish the lot off! These contain NO EGGS and NO BAKING POWDER OR SODA.
Ingredients:
1 block butter (250g), softened overnight, or in microwave on low setting.
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
¾ cup self-raising flour
1 cup chocolate chips
(or ½ cup chocolate chips and ½ cup naked ginger)
Method:
Preheat oven to 160°C (150°C fan-forced).
Using electric beaters, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. The colour will change to a much lighter colour when it has been beaten enough. Sift the flours over the butter mixture and use a non-serrated knife to mix to a dough. Add the chocolate chips and ginger and mix with the knife. (This will give them a shortbread-like texture). Roll into balls (They roll easily without sticking). Place on trays lined with baking paper. Flatten the tops with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes. Ready when cooled. Yum!
For peanut butter recipe, add ¾ cup crunchy peanut butter into the butter once creamed. Adjust the flour to 1 ½ cups of plain flour and 1 cup of self-raising flour, omit ginger. 
No comments:
Post a Comment