What a lovely occasion to celebrate. I hope you’re sitting in front of your screen with a box of chocolate chip cookies while reading this article.
Apparently chocolate chip cookies date back to 1938. They were invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield, who back then chopped up a bar of Nestlé chocolate and mixed it into the silky, smooth dough. Whether this invention was an intentional or an accidental one is left unknown, but what’s for sure is that it was a great addition to the baking world.
As humans, chocolate chip cookies come in all sizes and shapes. There’s the thinner ones that spread more, the crunchy ones, the gooey ones with a brittle crust, and also the huge ones, super gooey inside that you need to share with a couple of friends, because for one person they’re too much.
Chocolate chip cookies are traditionally made with butter, white and light brown sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda and or baking powder, and of course chocolate chips. Brown sugar is the factor that makes the cookies gooey and moist, because of the molasses it contains, white sugar makes it airy and crunchy. The eggs and butter are for hydration and fat, so the better the quality of these products, the better your cookies. I also like to exchange parts of wheat flour for spelt or rye, to give the cookies some depth and nuttiness and to take out some sweetness.
A few things to keep in mind when making cookies:
- Cream your sugar and butter, but not too much. The two ingredients should be combined but not too airy and fluffy, because we’re not making cake, we’re making cookies.
- Don’t over whisk eggs.
- Fold in your flour quickly, don’t overmix. As opposed to baking bread, we don’t want any gluten development, because that would make the dough weirdly gummy and chewy. After you’ve added your flour, pulse the mixer a few times, add chocolate and pulse again. Then you should be fine.
- Let the cookie dough rest for at least 24h. Like this it hydrates and develops a more deep aroma, also the butter hardens and you’ll get a great cookie once baked.
- Preheat your oven, otherwise it’ll be too cold and the cookies won’t get the desired texture.
- Let the cookies cool first on the tray and after 10 minutes move them to a rack and let cool fully.
We would be terribly mean if we wouldn’t share a chocolate chip cookie recipe with you guys. So here are three that you shouldn’t miss. One is by Bon Appetit, made with brown butter. Brown butter makes the cookies spread more and get flatter. Another classic recipe is the one by Ravneet Gill, for gooey thicker cookies. Finally, the one by Delish, with a take on Levain bakery’s cookies.
And if you want to buy some cookies, head over to my online bakery Krümel – Cookies & Crumbs! But only within Stockholm…for now.
