Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies.. Honestly! (From NY Times Recipe)

[Boaz]

Artful.............YOUR KILLIN ME !! I'm on a diet and ya'll are talkin bout gourmet cookies . I like to cook , it's fun and like a science experiment .................................................W ait a second .............is that kind of like reloading ? May be another common bond here ?

[DougGuy]

My grandma always used some molasses in place of some of the brown sugar. It makes for a more "chewy" cookie.

After doing a little research, I used some Sorghum syrup in this recipe. Sorghum is wonderful stuff, it has it's own flavor, it's very nice, and one of the healthiest sugars you will find anywhere on the planet. The recipe calls for 10oz. by weight light brown sugar. I packed a half cup measure with light brown sugar and weighed it, 5.0oz, so I used only 5oz. of light brown sugar and 1/2 cup of Muddy Pond organic Sorghum syrup. It turned the dough a shade darker but that's okay. This is the only change I made in the recipe, and the dough is resting under wraps in the fridge now, I will bake them after 40hrs in the fridge.

2015 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

[Artful]

Ha, found it - tomorrow we start Christmas Baking!

[square butte]

How did that last batch turn out Doug? - You never let us know last year. Any other recent modifications?

[DougGuy]

How did that last batch turn out Doug? - You never let us know last year. Any other recent modifications?

Oh dang I apologize! They turned out great! I found one in the freezer a month ago and it was just as tasty as when it was baked! I went and looked and didn't get any pics from last year's cookies either!

I had such good luck mixing Steen's Pure Cane Syrup with Muddy Bottom Organic Sorghum Syrup for the bourbon chocolate pecan pie at Thanksgiving, I may well eliminate the remaining brown sugar and use cane syrup and sorghum syrup but keep everything else the same.

[MaryB]

My oldest sister tried for years to make my Grandma's chocolate chip cookies. I had her send me the recipe and I told her to take out the brown sugar and sub sorghum and molasses 50/50... that was the key to the chewy texture they had. I had helped grandma make them and my sister never mentioned she couldn't get them right until a couple years ago!

[DougGuy]

My oldest sister tried for years to make my Grandma's chocolate chip cookies. I had her send me the recipe and I told her to take out the brown sugar and sub sorghum and molasses 50/50... that was the key to the chewy texture they had. I had helped grandma make them and my sister never mentioned she couldn't get them right until a couple years ago!

We were just looking at sugar and liquid conversions this evening, and everythnig said you could use all liquid sugars but need to reduce the liquid some other place but we don't have any other liquid in there. Last year's batch was white sugar, and half and half brown sugar and sorghum syrup. I'd like to make them this year with 50/50 cane syrup and sorghum syrup and not use brown sugar at all, just the two syrups and white sugar. What do you think that will do?

[NavyVet1959]

Don't know about this "pasture butter", but I can remember having fresh hand churned butter on fresh baked bread when I was young. Damn, that was good.

But, then again, I think a lot of the things that we remember from our youth tasted better than even if we had the exact same thing right now. I suspect that our taste buds get desynthesized and it takes more extreme flavors to make an impact on them as we get older.

[rondog]

Y'all are gonna get fat.....

[M-Tecs]

Once on the lips always on the hips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Electric88]

I'm also very curious as to how to use the 50/50 cane syrup and sorghum for this recipe. It sounds amazing, but I don't want to put in too much either!

[square butte]

We have used maple syrup in place of some of the brown sugar - But it's easy to get a cookie that spreads out too much and is too thin. I've tried adding more flour to improve the initial texture of the dough - But have not been able to perfect that correction. That would be my worry using all cane syrup and sorghum syrup. Am I gonna give it a whirl ? You Bet. For those interested - grade B maple syrup adds a terrific flavor. My other favorite addition to chocolate chip cookies with dark chocolate is orange peel zest. Add enough zest so that you like the way the dough tastes - It'll be different for each palate.

[MaryB]

Grandma's other trick was using bread flour so it forms some gluten to hold the cookie shape! I think she used 1 less egg to cut some liquid too.

[DougGuy]

This recipe has bread flour in it. GF is suggesting I make a dough devoid of chips and nuts and just see how it does before we commit to all the goodies mixed in. I dunno, last batch turned out really good with half sorghum and half brown sugar. Sometimes you gotta know when to quit. Might try a small batch with cane syrup and sorghum syrup but if it don't proof itself, I won't be wrecking the Christmas Eve cookies!

[square butte]

Sometimes tried and true is worth sticking with - Especially where Christmas is concerned

[MaryB]

I emailed my sister for the modified recipe, I don't have a copy of it(not a huge sweets eater so I don't bake cookies). See if she still has it...

[DougGuy]

Ok I'm making half a batch, just to test replacing ALL of the brown sugar with a 50/50 mix of Steen's pure cane syrup and Muddy Pond sorghum syrup. I can taste slightly less overall sweetness in the dough, it tastes less like cookie flavored cake icing and more like a pancake if that makes any sense. There is a deeper/darker more complex element to the taste that is plainly the overtones of the cane and sorghum syrups. Results posted on Sunday when it's time to bake them. Here is the half batch recipe:

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies – Half Batch

4.25oz cake flour
4.25oz bread flour
5/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks salted Pasture Butter (Whole Foods) softened
5oz light brown sugar *substituting with ¼ cup pure cane syrup and ¼ cup sorghum syrup*
4oz granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 bag (5oz) Ghiradelli 60% cacao baking chips
1/2 bar (2oz) fair trade chocolate 72% cacao
1/2bar (2oz) fair trade chocolate 85% cacao
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup dried tart cherries

Chop chocolate bars in to 1/2" squares and refrigerate. Sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt) and set aside..

Using an electric mixer, combine butter and sugars, mix on medium speed until mixture is light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Mix in egg, add vanilla, turn mixer to low speed and add in dry ingredients that were sifted together. Mix until just incorporated. Turn mixture out into larger bowl, add chocolate pieces, raisins, cherries, and pecans. Mix just enough to evenly incorporate.

Cover mixture with cling wrap leaving no air space and refrigerate 36 to 48 hours.

Use a 1.5oz ice cream scoop to make golfball sized balls of dough, space 3" to 4" apart on baking sheet. Bake in 350° oven until golden brown on the edges and barely browning in the center, about 13 to 15 minutes. Adjust baking time accordingly if necessary. Should make 30 each 3" cookies.

[NavyVet1959]

From what I've read, brown sugar is just regular white refined sugar with molasses added to it. I guess the amount of molasses determines whether it is light brown or dark brown.

[DougGuy]

This is true. After thinking it over, I am missing the "toffee" flavor in the cookie dough, and I think this is from taking out the brown sugar. Next half batch will likely replace cane syrup with molasses.

Edit: Okay after thinking this one over a bit I decided to go ahead and make a second half batch of dough, keeping everything the same EXCEPT switching the pure cane syrup for black strap molasses.. So now we have two batches of cookie dough "resting" in the fridge until Sunday when it will be time to bake them.

On the left, the batch with pure cane syrup + sorghum syrup, on the right the batch has black strap molasses + sorghum syrup. QUITE the difference!





Edit #2: It is Sunday night and the cookie dough rested in the fridge 40hrs. Cookies were baked at 350 for 13mins. These are VERY chewy, a little too soft, so the consensus will be that taking out ALL of the light brown sugar takes out too much of the crispy edge, you can see in the photo that the light cookies have sunk and are less crisp than cookies made with half light brown sugar and half sorghum syrup or molasses. The dark cookies in the back are made from the same exact recipe, the only difference between the two is the light ones have pure cane syrup + sorghum syrup, and the dark ones have blackstrap molasses + sorghum syrup, neither of these cookies have any brown sugar. The dark cookies do have a little of that molasses taste but overall they don't taste like classic chocolate chip cookies, and the lighter ones do have that classic toffee flavor in the dough.

I think my final recipe will see both light brown sugar and sorghum syrup for the brown sweeteners. This was a tasty experiment, and I sent all of the cookies you see in the photo to some unsuspecting facebook friends for Christmas!

[MaryB]

Grandmas sorghum syrup had a molasses taste, she cooked it down until it was a medium dark amber color...