The Art of Cookies How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies

1. The Art of CookiesHow to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies By Lisa Christian LTEC 4160

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3. History of the Cookie • The first cookies were created by accident. Cooks used a small amount of cake batter to test their oven temperature before baking a large cake. • Originally called "little cakes," cookies are made with sweet dough or batter, baked in single-sized servings and eaten out-of-hand. Perfect for snacking or as dessert, cookies are consumed in 95.2 percent of U.S. households. Americans alone consume over 2 billion cookies a year, or 300 cookies for each person annually. • Sometime in the 1930s, so the story goes, a Massachusetts innkeeper, Ruth Wakefield, ran out of nuts while making cookies. Therefore, she substituted a bar of baking chocolate, breaking it into pieces and adding the chunks of chocolate to the flour, butter and brown sugar dough. The Toll House Cookie, so named after the inn in which it was served, was a hit.

4. Why Cookies? • Cookies are easy to make even for an inexperienced baker or children. • Most ingredients you keep on hand in your pantry at all times. • Quick to prepare. • Delicious!

5. Basic Cookie Information • The types of sugars, oils or fats will substantially effect the texture, softness, and taste of the over all cookie product. • Cookies are most often classified by method of preparation - drop, molded, pressed, refrigerated, bar and rolled. • Their dominant ingredient, such as nut cookies, fruit cookies or chocolate cookies, can also classify them. • Cookies can also be found as low-fat, sugar-free, and gluten-free as America’s need for new and different types of cookies expand.

6. Cookie Types • Drop Cookies – cookies that are formed by dropping chucks of dough onto a cookie sheet. • Filled Cookies – cookies that are baked with something added to the center, typically a jam or jelly. • Bar Cookies – Cookie dough that is all baked in a pan at the same time, cooled and typically cut into bar shapes. • Rolled Cookies – cookies that are rolled out on a flat surface and shapes are cut out of the dough. These are just a few of the more popular types of cookies. There are many different types of cookies available today.

7. Cookie Add ins Add in ingredients change the basic cookie into many different flavors and textures. Some common add in ingredients include: Nuts – cashews, pecans, peanuts, macadamia nuts. Candy – M&Ms, Reese’s chips or pieces, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or toffee bits. Fruits – Raisins, cherries, orange or lemon juices, or cranberries.

8. Cookie Suggestions ***Consider mixing up batches of cookies in advance. *** Form the cookies on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Store froze cookies in a plastic bag. Keep them frozen until you are ready to use them. No thawing is required.

9. Cookie Suggestions (cont.) ***Consider mixing a double batch.*** If you are taking the time to make a batch of cookies, double the recipe and save the extra cookie dough. If you do not have time to form into individual dough and freeze as noted above, form the extra dough into multiple logs and roll up with wax paper. Store the logs together in a plastic bag. Write the cooking instructions on the outside of the plastic bag with a permanent marker. When ready to bake, take out one log and slice into equal chunks and place on cookie sheet. No thawing required.

10. Cookie Suggestions (cont.) ***Consider a bar cookie*** There is no forming, rolling or cutting and the dough is baked all at once. Bar cookies can be baked in an aluminum foil pan, cooled and then frozen pan and all. If you don’t have an aluminum foil pan, line a baking pan with enough aluminum foil to come up and over the edges. Fill and bake. When cooled, lift out of baking pan, wrap and freeze. When ready to eat, thaw and enjoy.

11. Equipment • Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons • Mixing Bowls • Whisk, Spoons or Cookie Scoop, and Spatula • Cookie Sheets or Baking Pans • Parchment Paper • Cooling Rack or Wax Paper

12. Ingredients - Tips • Read over recipe well and make sure that you understand what you need before beginning. • Buy the best ingredients you can find. It will make a difference in the taste of your final product. • Only real butter gives a true buttery flavor to your baking. Margarine will work but will not taste as good. Never substitute shortening for butter! If using salted butter in a recipe, omit the salt or do not add as much as called for.

13. Ingredients – Tips (continued) • Most recipes assume you are using large eggs and are generally tested with large. • Use only real vanilla extract if available. Imitation vanilla flavoring will work, but again, will not taste as good.

14. Chocolate Chips • Quality is essential to your cookies taste. • Choose a brand that taste good straight out of the bag. • Make sure you know what type of chocolate you need for your cookies. Unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate add an intense richness but are what their names imply. Semisweet chocolate on the other hand is a mellow and sweet flavor. • Beware of inexpensive chocolate, as a low price can be an indication of poor quality. • NEVER use imitation chocolate!

15. Getting Started… Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies - Ingredients 2 ½ c. all-purpose flour ½ tsp. baking soda ¼ tsp. Salt 1 c. (packed) dark brown sugar ½ c. granulated white sugar 2 sticks (or 1 cup) salted butter, softened 2 large eggs 2 tsp. Vanilla extract 12 oz. (or about 2 cups) Semisweet chocolate chips

16. Oven • Wash your hands. • Preheat the oven to 300oF. • Make sure to preheat the oven for at least 15 minutes prior to cooking your first batch of cookies to assure correct and even temperature has been reached within the oven. • Make sure there is nothing in the oven prior to turning it on. • If in doubt of your oven temperature, a oven thermometer should be used to verify if the oven is true. • For even baking, your oven should be level in all directions.

17. Mixing the Dry Ingredients • Select a medium size bowl. • Add to the bowl: 2 ½ c. of all-purpose flour ½ tsp. baking soda ¼ tsp. salt Mix well with wire whisk. Set aside.

18. The Next Step • Select a large bowl. • Add to bowl: 1 c. (packed) dark brown sugar ½ c. granulated white sugar Blend sugars with an electric mixer at medium speed.

19. Cream That BUTTER!!! • Add 2 sticks or 1 c. of softened salted butter. • Blend with sugar until a grainy paste is formed. Scrap down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

20. Wet Ingredients • Into the creamed butter/sugar mixture add: 2 large eggs 2 tsp. vanilla extract Mix at medium speed until just blended. Do not overmix as you do not want to add extra air to the mix at this point.

21. Where Did I Put The Dry Ingredients?? • Find the dry ingredients you set aside earlier. • Add the flour mixture and 12 oz. Chocolate Chips to the bowl of wet ingredients. • Blend at low speed until just barely mixed. Do not overmix! This can cause your cookies to become chewy or hard.

22. Cookie Sheets • Using two cookie sheets is preferred so that as one sheet of cookies are baking you can spoon more onto the other cookie sheet to maximize production. • Cookies do not require a greased cookie sheet as the amount of fats (typically butter) helps them not to stick. However, I would highly recommend the use of parchment paper. This will assure that the cookies do not stick and make clean up a snap!

23. Lets Get Cookin’ • Take two tablespoon or a cookie scoop and use them to drop the dough by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto an cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. This spacing is essential as the cookies will spread as they bake.

24. I Can Smell Them Now! • Bake cookies 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. • Transfer cookies immediately to a cool surface with a spatula. A wire cooling rack or a counter covered in wax paper works well.

25. Cooling Cookies • Cookies should be completely cooled before eating so as not to completely burn the roof of your mouth with a hot chocolate chip, however, cookies are extremely tasty hot and therefore are generally worth the risk.

26. Cookies’ Best Friend Milk is the best accompaniment to cookies! Beware of milk mustache!

27. Storing • Once completely cooled, cookies should be kept in an airtight container. They will stay chewier and won’t absorb unwanted aromas or flavors. • Cookies, brownies and bars will be good for up to six months in the freezer, as long as they are sealed in plastic bags.

28. Shipping • Cookies are one of the best baked good to ship. They are compact, easy to pack, and do not require a lot of extra packing materials to make sure they arrive at their destination as cookies and not crumbs. • Keep in mind that cookies with frosting or excess decorations are generally ones that you would avoid when deciding which cookies to make to ship. • Take two completely cooled cookies and place them bottom-to-bottom. Wrap in plastic wrap. Repeat this until all cookies are done. Stack securely in a tin or plastic container to help with shipping. Place in box with packing to insure the cookie container has as little movement as possible.

29. I Just Can’t Stop Making Cookies!! • If you have found your calling in cookies and have more cookie dough than your freezer can handle, consider having a fund raising bake sale for your favorite charity. Everyone loves cookies and you will be helping your community at the same time!

30. References • History excepts from: http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/cookies.htm • Recipe from: Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book, by Debbi Fields and the Editors of Time-Life Books, 1998 3 All pictures in this presentation were taken by Lisa Christian, March 2010, used with permission