CCC IX X

Perhaps I lose focus baking chocolate chip cookies. My motivation lies in the crunchy, gooey chocolatiness that lasts. While I have achieved extremely chocolate loaded cookies, enjoyed them and received good reviews, a right texture remains elusive. Cookie essays promise crisper cookies with more butter; not true. Recipes describe flat cookies and then instructions include refrigerating; I fall for that every single time. Take "Tasty 101: Ultimate Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies" by Scott Loitsch and Claire King. Not from New York Times, a relative directed me to this recipe because the authors baked a lot of cookies to find the best one; they suggest putting the dough in the refrigerator on a cookie sheet, already dropped into balls and I did.

We ate them all before I photographed any cookies. They looked just like CCC VIII.

The cookie duo directed me to browning the butter before adding, something I intend to do for the next recipe too because chocolate chip cookies benefit from that nutty flavor. Do these look crisp and chewy to you? No, they do not. Really nice chocolate taste though. I had my trustworthy, very experienced and helpful baker friend in the kitchen for baking a batch, and found myself not paying attention. I have my suspicions about the cause.

Because I love sourdough, my baker friend suggested adding it to the dough; just a couple tablespoons, but I found a sourdough cookie recipe and added a 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and 2 oz chopped chocolate instead. All tasters agreed that the cookie tasted of chocolate and not sourdough.

Here I debunked the notion that using your KitchenAid and creaming and egg beating for less than three minutes results in flat cookies. Stella Parks of Cookie Science suggests using egg white for flatter cookies and adds that melting the butter disturbs this phenomena. My baker friend suggested using sugar syrup for a flattener.

In an effort to change my cookie, alway delicious, but never crispy, gooey, my next recipe will incorporate egg white and syrup. I'll let you know how it turns out.