Saturday, March 14, 2009

Alton Brown’s "The Chewy"

Posted by Erin Wilburn / 9 comments » / cookies, dessert

As I previously mentioned, I went on a bit of a cookie baking binge a few weekends ago. Along with the chocolate sugar cookie, and the butterscotch oatmeal cookie, I wanted to make a classic chocolate chip cookie. Now, I already have a recipe that people love. Whenever I make them people are like, “THESE ARE THE BEST COOKIES EVER!”. But I just kept hearing rave reviews online about this Alton Brown recipe called “The Chewy”. Just in case (you live on Mars and) have never watched his show on the Food Network, Good Eats, it’s an incredibly informative, but still entertaining show. He really breaks it all down to a science. He spent an entire episode on Chocolate Chip Cookies, making “The Thin”, “The Puffy”, and “The Chewy”. How great is that? I’ve actually seen that episode, and I finally decided to try out one of the recipes.

The first cookie I had from this recipe was when it was still slightly warm out of the oven. To which I immediately replied, “I like my other recipe better”. But really, I hadn’t given this recipe a shot, in the conditions is supposed to be good for. See, this recipe is supposed to produce a cookie that remains soft and “chewy” even for the next couple days. Sure enough when I had one of the cookies the next day it was melt-in-your-mouth chewy and buttery. This really was a yummy yummy recipe. I still think I’m gonna stick with my other recipe as my go-to ccc recipe. I do think I need better pictures of that cookie. I made it in my early early stages of blogging. That aside, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recommend this recipe. I definitely would! It just depends on your chocolate chip cookie preference. To me, in the other recipe, the cookies puff up a bit more, and I like that. You had more to sink your teeth into. These cookies were flatter, and greasier. Some people won’t mind that, but I did. If you want, check out this cookie comparison over at The Way The Cookie Crumbles, it’s one of the blogs that inspired me to finally try out this recipe!

Below is the recipe in it’s original form. The only thing I did different was use my small cookie scoop, so therefore my baking time was reduced. Definitely keep an eye on these cookies. Probably due to the melted butter, these cookies turn golden in color pretty fast.

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Alton Brown's "The Chewy"

from The Food Network

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Special thanks to my cookie scoop for producing such perfect looking cookies!