Quest for the CCCC

Chocolate chips cookies (a.k.a CCC, 3Cs) have a very special place in my heart.

No, not because I love to eat them.

No, definitely not because they are easy to make; at least not the kind that I want.  In fact, I have conquered recipes to my liking or at least some-what liking, EXCEPT chocolate chips cookies.  Can you feel my frustration between the lines?

My baking fun started with muffins; piece of cake.  So I ushered the 3Cs into my oven.  I have lost count of how many times I have made chocolate chips cookies; kids and friends love it, except me – the baker.  I don’t want just any CCC, it must be CCCC, the 4Cs! – No, not that 4Cs (condominium, cash, car and career) which our follow citizens are chasing after.  It’s Chewy Chocolate Chips Cookies! Chewy, is the magic word.

A fun, out-of-love pastime has eventually turned into a frustrating quest; the search for the right recipe to produce the right 4Cs.  

‘If you are not a cookies fan, why bother? Anyway, it’s good enough to your Darlings. Why make such a big deal over it??’ – You might wonder.

Good question, cos’ I wonder the same too. 

Crispy cookies are easy, for me at least, bite size dough couple with longer baking time.  Whichever degree of crispiness, play with that conditions.  All of the chewy recipes I have tried so far, turned out to be crispy or crispy-potentials but never chewy.  You see what I mean??

Ok, we are talking about chewy cookies here …

What have I tried?  Wow, so many different things.

First and forth most, was read and read about what experienced bakers have to say.  Why re-invent the wheel, right??

Chewiness, according to some, is all about retaining the moisture in the cookies.  So use brown sugar instead of white sugar.

Tried. No magic word.  I guess it takes more than brown sugar alone.

Someone recommended using bread flour because of the higher protein content.

Again, no magic word.  So, it takes more than protein alone.

Many recipes that claimed to produce the 4Cs, instructed “beat butter and sugar till creamy”. That was exactly what I did. Happily beating away and ... YES, very creamy indeed.

Still no magic word.  Ya, then I read somewhere someone said beating would incorporate air into the dough and airy cookies you would have.  I was speechless and fuming.  "WHICH ONE OF YOU IS NOT TELLING THE TRUTH??? BRING ME THE CULPRIT NOW!!!"

There was this discussion about dry ingredients and wet ingredients ratio.  I will save you the details on the relationship between density and volume.  Bottom line is:  use weighing scale rather than measuring cup.

Been there, done that.  No magic word. 

But I still weigh my ingredients, simply because it makes scientific sense. 

Well, something good had to come out from all these mess and effort, right?

Somebody said keep the dough cold; cold egg, cold mixing bowl, cold this and cold that … My heart turned cold and my brain was totally messed up with all these conflicting information.

‘Take every piece of information in the internet with a pitch of salt.’ – We all know that.  But it's more than just salt this time round.  There are butter and sugar too, and a whole lot more …

Then …

Some people actually trialed and tested different methods to yield either crispy cookies or chewy cookies. One of the recommendations, among many others, is to use melted butter. Why? – I don’t know.  They also mentioned use higher temperature shorter baking time. 

I have not tried it because I don’t see any ingredient that is so very different. I have had enough of failure you know.   But mainly, is because of the ‘one egg and one egg yolk.’  Then what am I suppose to do with the unused egg white?  That is simply …. an imperfection of the recipe - having left-over lying on the kitchen top.  I know, perfectionist can be unbelievably unreasonable at times.  My better half would roll his eyes and say to you: "Tell me about it!!"

In any case, I took the advice and used a similar recipe that called for 2 full eggs - good job, nice and clean.  What I got from doing all these? – Soft but not chewy cookies. I could hear my sarcastic self screaming: "Hell-o, anybody home? Didn’t the recipe specifically mention the difference of using one yolk? What were you thinking??!!" - Right, so much for being a perfectionist, way to go …

By this time, I was screaming inside me: “WTH IS YOUR DEFINITION OF CHEWY?????” I am pretty sure you are feeling my frustration now.  I gave up searching for CCCC, and googled Subway CCC.  It was amazing how many hits I've got.  Great, there are so many people out there just as obsessed as I am.  It's comforting to know, really.

Somebody mentioned the use of pudding mix.  What is pudding mix? – Corn starch with different flavors.  So I added corn starch.  They were the worst CCC I have ever made, thick, floury, dry … whatever, I didn’t care.  That was not a keeper.

So I stopped baking CCC, feeling completely defeated ….

Very much gave up and stopped picturing the ecstasy of finally biting into the chewiness I desperately seek.

The quest is over, OVER!!!

It wasn't the end of the world you know, and I managed to move on and find my new love - bread.

Ha ha, that was another frustrating long story … another day ya … but this one has got a happy ending … *smile*

Months and months have gone by ... no CCC, let alone CCCC ...

Over the weekend, we held a simple birthday gathering for Darling Boy.  Only one of Darling Girl’s friends could come, and she specially asked for my chocolate chips cookies. 

How could I possibly disappoint a ten year-old fan, right? 

Yet, it felt like rubbing salt to my CCCC wound. 

Still, I decided to bake some for her. No quest.  'It’s over", remember??

I sat down, went through different recipes … condensation in progress.

Here is the what and the how:

What

ত        180 g all purpose flour

ত        115 g bread flour

ত        227 g unsalted butter

ত        100 g brown sugar

ত        120 g dark sugar

ত        2 large eggs

ত        1 teaspoon baking soda

ত        1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

ত        ½ teaspoon salt

ত        1 pack (270g) semi sweet chocolate chips

How

1. Melt the butter, and stir in the sugars. 
2. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, combine all purpose flour, bread flour and baking soda. Sift into butter mixture.
4. Add in salt and chocolate chips, mix well.
5. Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 mins.
6. Form dough into 1 ½ tablespoon size and drop onto baking sheet.  Flatten with fork.
7. Bake on middle rack for 10 mins at 180C in a pre-heated oven. Cool on baking tray for 5 mins.
8. Enjoy! Store remaining cookies in air tight container.

The cookies turned out chewy, though not quite there yet but looked promising.  In fact, I was rather excited when I saw the gooey butter and sugar mixture.  A good chance of chewy cookies, I thought to myself.

Comments from tasters:

Chewy.  (Yes, yes, that is the magic word I have been searching for high and low.)

Sweetness is just right.

Taste is good, doesn’t stick on my teeth and throat.  Don’t ask me about texture.  I can’t tell.  *faint*

So, I have decided. 

I hereby declare the quest for the CCCC shall continue …

The cookies were chewy, but I want more.

So what’s next:

1. Reduce baking soda to half teaspoon.
2. I think I stirred too much while mixing the butter and sugar; I have to stop that.
3. Use coarse sugar, it’s ok if it is not dissolved completely.
4. If you like your cookies really sweet, add more sugar.  It should make the cookies chewier.
5. Consider throw in the cold ingredients theory. No harm trying again, right?

If you have a recipe that gives Subway kind of chewiness, please save me from my agony and share …  Your name will be mentioned every time I talk about chocolate chips cookies, I can assure you.

Disclaimer: What works in my kitchen might not work in yours, and the reverse might be true.

Melt-in-the-mouth German Cookies

“Oh man, not again!!” – If that’s what you are thinking …

I know, I know; this recipe has been blogged for a very long time.  But you know what; the mood for these cookies came only over the weekend.  Baking for me, it’s not just about skills, but very much about moods and feelings too.  I could be dying to bake all weekdays; when weekend finally arrives, I simply don’t feel like it anymore.   No matter how hard I try to rekindle the desperation. So I would end up just rot on the couch, do nothing…

Where was I? - Oh ya, we were talking about German cookies … I tried something different, so hear me out … can?

Melt-in-the-mouth?

Yes, these cookies really melt in your mouth.  They crumble very easily too, so be very careful when your handle them.  I dropped one during transferring, at what – three inches height, it crumbled into pieces!   

Where in the oven?

Unlike many, I will bake these cookies on the lower rack;   browned bottom is better than browned top. Then the cookies will not stick to the baking sheet as much.  It’s easier to remove them; cleaner baking sheet means better cookies bottoms … :-)

Sugar. 

My darlings like sweets, so I added extra 10g of sugar.

Flavors. 

I did not like the idea of buttery.  So I made chocolate and orange flavors.  I actually wanted lemon, but couldn’t find one in my fridge … :-).  

Verdict. 

Orange zest is the winner.  We like that tint of orange flavor; kind of balances that overwhelming buttery taste.

If you like one-bite size cookies, then this recipe should yield about 45 cookies or more.  Less than that  – watch those dropping crumbs as you take your first bite.

I got this recipe from Cook.Bake.Love.  If you are like me, prefer more than the buttery taste, here’s what you can do:

For a chocolate flavor, add 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder and one teaspoon of vanilar essence.

For a citric flavor, add 1 teaspoon of orange or lemon zest.  

What I like about this recipe is the simplicity.  Four ingredients, easily find in super marts and convenient stores.  No pre-preparation or what-so-ever; add, mix, bake, done within an hour.

When a recipe calls for many ingredients, worse fanciful ones, it makes me nervous.  I won’t go for it.  If I have to beat ingredients A together, prepared B and set aside, double boil C into some consistency and bla and bla … It scares me away. That, it’s something I wish I could overcome one day.  But for now, I'll stay with simplicity....

My first …

I am finally ready to publish my first posting, in my first blog.
What do I blog about, you might ask. 
Er ...

I should be the last person on earth to start a food blog.  My mother calls me a 饭桶. Of course, she is not implying that I am unintelligent or incapable but literally saying I am a ‘rice bucket’.  She told my kids, on numerous occasions, that she had to wake up at five in the morning to make me porridge or bee hoon for breakfast during my school days.  Now I grumble about my kids being picky about food. That, is retribution!

I am happy with a bowl of rice top with fried egg; a little chilly sauce would make that perfect; a gooey yolk is ultimate … yummy.

I eat when I am hungry; not for pleasure. I have no craving, not even during both my pregnancies.  Ok, maybe a little.

I don’t have energy and patience to wait for food.  Have you ever heard about the saying “a hungry woman is an angry woman”? That is so very, VERY me.  I would throw a tantrum first before turn jelly. I wake up from nap feeling jelly; if I slept over lunch.  That’s how urgent I need to fill my tummy when I am hungry – immediately, pretty much.

I don’t have sweet tooth; chocolates, pastries, desserts and alike have no calling on me.  Sugar makes my tummy sick.

I’ve got this lactose intolerant thingy; I can only handle this much of dairy products in cooking and baking; same with coconut milk and oily stuff.  Buttery dough makes me nauseous.

Furthermore, my spelling and grammar suck; even though I type first.  Boy, I can type; the right finger flying on the right key, IF given a text.  I spell check all my works and continue to hope for a more powerful grammar check tool.

On top of all that and those not mentioned, I am very vulnerable to criticism!! This is so very typical of a perfectionist.  I cannot imagine anybody who doesn’t like my postings, and worse:  such things stay FOREVER in the cyber way!! I read many food blogs, but never have I left any comment.

So you see, I have no reason to rub shoulder with the food bloggers out there. 

So, why am I blogging now?
Yes, I cook – for the love of my darlings.
Yes, I bake – again, for the love of my darlings. Oooh …am I surprised!
My better half told me, blog to share my experience. 

So here I am, and this blog will be more than just food, at least that’s the plan.

So … stick around ya, for my next ‘real’ posting.