The Doom of the Spoon (No Cheating) – Learning the Significance of Two Tablespoons

I have been making David Leite’s chocolate chip cookies for a few years now.  They have become the “house favorite” around here.  The other day I made a batch for Ryan’s return (well, any excuse).  Needless to say, they didn’t last long.  Last night after dinner he was milling about and said, “Where’d the cookies go?”  Couldn’t blame it on the mice (George) so, I made another batch this afternoon.  Here’s the lesson I learned:

I know very well, yes I do, from experience, reading, and pastry school, that baking leaves little room for fooling around, especially when it comes to proportions of wet vs dry ingredients – but can tiny quantities really make a difference in the outcomes?  Yes, definitely.  Here’s the proof.

I have made this recipe most often with the quantity of cake flour specified and the balance of 1 2/3 cup being all purpose flour if I don’t have any bread flour in the house.  They have always come out “fine” but obviously not as great as if I followed the recipe to a “t”.  I also cheat a little and only chill the dough a little bit.  No one is going to wait around overnight, let alone 36 hours for these cookies to be baked, including me.

When making today’s batch, I had the sifter sitting on top of the bowl and before I took the 2 tblsp of cake flour out of the 2 cups as specified, I let the ap flour(sub), baking soda, baking powder and salt start floating down into the bowl.  I said to myself, ” how much difference can 2 tblsp of cake flour make (making the calculated risk)?”  Well, I found out.

Truth be told I often find myself going through a bout of mental skepticism when recipes call for a measure, say a cup and then, minus a tsp or some small amount.  This is just a bad judgment on my part.  Today, I found just how bad –  those two extra tablespoons of cake flour made a big difference.  My cookies looked too cakey, didn’t spread properly and baked in a mound such that I was forced to give them a little push down with my hand when they were almost done.  Lesson learned – DON’T fool around with measurements of dry or wet as they affect proportions in baking recipes!

  this one in particular shows the cakey texture

  you may think these look fine, but, I can predict, when Ryan gets home he’ll say, “Mom, what did you do to these cookies?”  I guarantee it.

Note;  Photo on the Kitchen-Inspirational Facebook page header is these very same cookies made “properly”.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe – courtesy David Leite

Ingredients

Directions