This is the final installation in this three-blog series on cookies. I have taken the chocolate chip cookie further past the ingredients, past the procedure and technique, and into the science! Again I propose the question “How do variations in the proportions of ingredients affect a final product?”
The chewy cookie variation is my favorite. It provides the best characteristics of the Thin and the Puffy – a flat, dense consistency from the Thin, yet a moist interior from the Puffy.
For the chewy, the Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe must be modified to support more moisture. If you have become a dedicated reader to this series, you will remember the most important factor in cookie baking – the fat. Chewy cookies require something in order for it to have a slight chew. If you look at the ingredients list, none of them are chewy. Flour, salt, baking soda, brown sugar, white granulated sugar, butter, and chocolate are all powdered or soft solids. Vanilla extract and eggs are liquids. So where does the chew come from and why do the other cookies (which follow similar ingredient lists) not have such a defined chewy texture?
The answer lies in the flour. The starch in the flour is contains of two proteins, gliadin and glutenin. When water is added to the flour and agitation is applied, the two proteins cross-link to form this water-insoluble network of proteins called gluten. This gluten is responsible for the chew in baguettes, sourdoughs, bagels, and other breads.
Water is still needed to activate the production of gluten. So instead of using softened butter, it will be melted to take advantage of the water phase in butter. Therefore, when the flour is introduced to the batter, more gluten will form leading to a chewier cookie.
While on the note on flour, the type of flour matters just as much as what kind of fat is used. There are many varieties of flour, but at its most basic, three flour varieties will be available at the local supermarket: all-purpose [AP] flour, bread flour, and cake flour. The only difference amongst these varieties is protein content. Bread flour (as the name suggests) is excellent for baking bread because it has higher protein content. High protein is directly proportional to high gluten production. Conversely, cake flour contains low protein content, and thus lower gluten potential. And all-purpose is the middle-of-the-road flour, a balance of both worlds.
Because of the high demand for gluten, using bread flour that is high in protein will increase the chewiness of the final product. Also, bread flour has the ability to absorb more liquid, so more moisture will remain in the cookie.
In contrast to the increased white-to-brown sugar ratio for the Thin, we want more moisture to be in the cookie. Brown sugar is coated in molasses – and molasses loves moisture. The more brown sugar (and less white sugar) added to the batter will increase the moisture content and will be more likely to attract moisture from the air.
Recall in the Puffy that more egg whites make a cookie ‘puff’ more. Also, egg whites dry out batters and in order for a chewy cookie to live up to its reputation, it has got to stay moist. Removing one egg white and replacing it with two tablespoons of milk would be an appropriate modification to keep the cookie moist. Other than that, follow the procedures to make a standard chocolate chip cookie.
Follow some simple guidelines and you can modify any recipe for any food to your liking. That is what the science of cooking should encourage – taking a foundation of a well known recipe and adding the personal decorations to make that product your own.
I hope in this series of blog posts, I have opened your eyes to the science of the chocolate chip cookie and that anyone can make their own, unique cookie from slightly tweaking a few ingredients to produce Good Eats.
With that note, I bid you good eating...
Showing posts with label The Chewy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Chewy. Show all posts
Friday, February 5, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Semester 01 Final
Writer’s Block:
Writing has never been one of my strong points and I have always experienced writer’s block. A major cause for this is the assignment of writing on a particular topic or using styles which I am uncomfortable. With blog posts, I am able to write about any subject without limit. This eliminates one of the factors writer’s block, but there are still other contributors.
An issue I have had for many years is taking ideas and molding them onto paper. I become greatly distracted and sometimes attempt to evade the assignment. Either that or I try to manipulate my writing to avoid answer the question and changing the initial topic. Sometimes, I may even take the topic and provide an extensive amount of research and background information.
For example, in the quick-write “I do, I have, I am,” the question is what do you think Steinberg is getting across? Instead of analyzing the meaning of the art, I described the painting in great detail. I explained the use of laws of perspective, the use of certain colors and textures, the positioning of specific aspects. But in the end, I failed to mention any thought of Steinberg’s message.
How did I overcome writer’s block? Simple: I wrote about topics that appealed to me and used a linear method of writing. With the exclusion of mandatory posts, most of my blogs are about science.
Once I began talking about science, the thread of science-related blogs continued. Thereafter, I had limited issues with writer’s block on my blog; of course I still had issues with other writing assignments. Because of the volume of research available for topics of my blog, many times I would continue my post from previous weeks by adding more information. I would always have an available topic in which I was interested to explore in my blog without the need to brainstorm for new ideas. This is not to say that writer’s block was cured.
There was still the issue of putting ideas into text. Sometimes this task is as easy as taking a resource and paraphrasing its text in a way which is non-plagiaristic and/or simplifying the text such that it is easier to read and understand.
In The Basics of Science, I dedicated a half-hour of research searching through old textbooks, notes, and the internet to find the most accurate and precise information to educate the views. I also spent additional time ensuring several words from the Academic Vocabulary List were incorporated to fulfill that week’s blog post requirement. Although not exactly writer’s block, it is a level in which thoughts are transcribed or ‘translations’ of the texts decelerate the momentum.
There are other occasions when I need to compose some aspects of the blog – like the analogies.
One analogy is a favorite of my English teacher. It compares the difference of mass in large marbles and small marbles to the mass of kosher salt and standard table salt.
In the end, writing with comfortable styles and knowledgeable topics (and also subjects you take interest) are the best defenses against writer’s block. The patterns I notice associated with writer’s block involve the lack in motivation and sometimes background knowledge required in some styles of writing.
Blog Post Analysis: The Thin
My most recent blog post The Thin featured a question I posted on a previous post. On “Cooking – More than fun” from 2009 October, one of the questions is: “How do variations in the proportions of ingredients affect a final product of food? “ I answered this question by using science – mainly chemistry. In order to modify a chocolate chip cookie recipe, I would need to acquire a recipe. I used the “Magna Carta” of American cookie recipes – the Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies.
The initial creator of the recipe was Ruth Graves Wakefield – and she sold her secret to NESTLÉ® for a life-time supply of chocolate. The recipe had become so popular with Americans; NESTLÉ® began to manufacture NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Morsels.
Hundreds of cookie types exist. There is the sugar cookie, Nabisco’s OREO™, triple chocolate cookie, M&M’s® cookie, chocolate chip, oatmeal and oatmeal raisin, snicker doodle, peanut butter, amongst many others. To further add to classifying cookies, the chocolate chip cookie can be classified into three variations. These variations are defined by the texture or appearance of the cookie.
The Thin cookie, as the name suggests, is flat. Its texture is usually crisp around the edges, and depending on the baking time, the center may be crisp or soft. For such a cookie to bake properly, the batter (which is dropped onto the baking sheet) must spread prior to setting. This requires the better to have a fat which melts at a sharp and low temperature. The less moisture that can accumulate during the mixing or baking process will reduce the amount of steam needed for batters to rise.
The Puffy cookie is light and airy. The consistency is more related to a cake than any of the other variations. The cookies produced using puffy recipes are usually small in diameter and tall in height. Contrary to The Thin, puffy cookies require steam build up in order to acquire the aerated texture. The proteins of egg whites tend to puff when agitated, similar to the foam produced when whipping egg whites for meringues, soufflés, mousses, and chiffon.
The Chewy is obviously chewy in texture. Usually flat, the chewy cookies have a texture that gives the true American chocolate chip cookie. It is the texture imagined when biting into the warm, fresh baked delights grandmother makes. This method requires a lot of moisture in a wet batter, which does not set like that of its puffy counterpart. Adding more brown sugar to the batter is the best way to yield high moisture content, as it absorbs water from the air even after the baking process.
Writing has never been one of my strong points and I have always experienced writer’s block. A major cause for this is the assignment of writing on a particular topic or using styles which I am uncomfortable. With blog posts, I am able to write about any subject without limit. This eliminates one of the factors writer’s block, but there are still other contributors.
An issue I have had for many years is taking ideas and molding them onto paper. I become greatly distracted and sometimes attempt to evade the assignment. Either that or I try to manipulate my writing to avoid answer the question and changing the initial topic. Sometimes, I may even take the topic and provide an extensive amount of research and background information.
For example, in the quick-write “I do, I have, I am,” the question is what do you think Steinberg is getting across? Instead of analyzing the meaning of the art, I described the painting in great detail. I explained the use of laws of perspective, the use of certain colors and textures, the positioning of specific aspects. But in the end, I failed to mention any thought of Steinberg’s message.
How did I overcome writer’s block? Simple: I wrote about topics that appealed to me and used a linear method of writing. With the exclusion of mandatory posts, most of my blogs are about science.
Once I began talking about science, the thread of science-related blogs continued. Thereafter, I had limited issues with writer’s block on my blog; of course I still had issues with other writing assignments. Because of the volume of research available for topics of my blog, many times I would continue my post from previous weeks by adding more information. I would always have an available topic in which I was interested to explore in my blog without the need to brainstorm for new ideas. This is not to say that writer’s block was cured.
There was still the issue of putting ideas into text. Sometimes this task is as easy as taking a resource and paraphrasing its text in a way which is non-plagiaristic and/or simplifying the text such that it is easier to read and understand.
In The Basics of Science, I dedicated a half-hour of research searching through old textbooks, notes, and the internet to find the most accurate and precise information to educate the views. I also spent additional time ensuring several words from the Academic Vocabulary List were incorporated to fulfill that week’s blog post requirement. Although not exactly writer’s block, it is a level in which thoughts are transcribed or ‘translations’ of the texts decelerate the momentum.
There are other occasions when I need to compose some aspects of the blog – like the analogies.
One analogy is a favorite of my English teacher. It compares the difference of mass in large marbles and small marbles to the mass of kosher salt and standard table salt.
… Cooking with kosher salts can cause a slight problem.[…]Consider the
following: Two jars of equal volume are filled with marbles of similar density
[…]. The first jar is filled to the rim with small marbles, the latter with
large marbles. […] would you expect them to be equal in weight? No. Because the
second jar is filled with larger marbles there is more room between the marbles,
and therefore less weight compared to the more compact smaller marbles.The same
principle can be applied to kosher salt and plain table salt. Because there is
more room between the grains of kosher compared to grains of plain table salt in
1 unit, there is technically less salt mass in 1 cup of kosher.
In the end, writing with comfortable styles and knowledgeable topics (and also subjects you take interest) are the best defenses against writer’s block. The patterns I notice associated with writer’s block involve the lack in motivation and sometimes background knowledge required in some styles of writing.
Blog Post Analysis: The Thin
My most recent blog post The Thin featured a question I posted on a previous post. On “Cooking – More than fun” from 2009 October, one of the questions is: “How do variations in the proportions of ingredients affect a final product of food? “ I answered this question by using science – mainly chemistry. In order to modify a chocolate chip cookie recipe, I would need to acquire a recipe. I used the “Magna Carta” of American cookie recipes – the Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies.
The initial creator of the recipe was Ruth Graves Wakefield – and she sold her secret to NESTLÉ® for a life-time supply of chocolate. The recipe had become so popular with Americans; NESTLÉ® began to manufacture NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Morsels.
Hundreds of cookie types exist. There is the sugar cookie, Nabisco’s OREO™, triple chocolate cookie, M&M’s® cookie, chocolate chip, oatmeal and oatmeal raisin, snicker doodle, peanut butter, amongst many others. To further add to classifying cookies, the chocolate chip cookie can be classified into three variations. These variations are defined by the texture or appearance of the cookie.
The Thin cookie, as the name suggests, is flat. Its texture is usually crisp around the edges, and depending on the baking time, the center may be crisp or soft. For such a cookie to bake properly, the batter (which is dropped onto the baking sheet) must spread prior to setting. This requires the better to have a fat which melts at a sharp and low temperature. The less moisture that can accumulate during the mixing or baking process will reduce the amount of steam needed for batters to rise.
The Puffy cookie is light and airy. The consistency is more related to a cake than any of the other variations. The cookies produced using puffy recipes are usually small in diameter and tall in height. Contrary to The Thin, puffy cookies require steam build up in order to acquire the aerated texture. The proteins of egg whites tend to puff when agitated, similar to the foam produced when whipping egg whites for meringues, soufflés, mousses, and chiffon.
The Chewy is obviously chewy in texture. Usually flat, the chewy cookies have a texture that gives the true American chocolate chip cookie. It is the texture imagined when biting into the warm, fresh baked delights grandmother makes. This method requires a lot of moisture in a wet batter, which does not set like that of its puffy counterpart. Adding more brown sugar to the batter is the best way to yield high moisture content, as it absorbs water from the air even after the baking process.
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