Chocolate Chip Cookie Comparison

With the new oven I am finally getting to enjoy baking again.  One of my favorite baked treats is homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Even with my old, cranky oven I had risked making cookies a year or two ago.  At that time I tried a Martha Stewart recipe that was really good.  But not long after that the Food Network magazine did a feature on chocolate chip cookies and listed various recipes depending on how you like your cookies' texture.  I have always loved chewy cookies so I decided I would try their chewy chocolate chip recipe and at the same time I would repeat the Martha Stewart recipe to decide which recipe I liked best.  Both recipes had amounts that were easy to half (even number of eggs makes a big difference) so last week I spent a few hours baking.  For those who might want to try other versions of chocolate chip cookies I suggest you check out the three recipes in that Food Network magazine from February 2012: recapped via their blog here.

The Martha Stewart recipe is the one known as Lexi's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies.  You may also see it listed as Alexis's Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies as it was first published in 1998.  If you look up that printing of this recipe you will see that it warns that this recipe makes very flat cookies that spread a lot on the baking pan.  It is really good to know that because I think this recipe is flawed in telling you to only space the cookies 2 inches apart.  I recommend spacing them at least 3 inches apart and be prepared if you do use the recommend 2 to 3 Tbsp drop of dough per cookie you are going to have very large, hard to handle cookies.  I have found in one reviewer comment that when this recipe was demonstrated on the show, Martha chilled the dough for an hour and baked the cookies for 12 minutes.  I do not know if that left the cookies less flat or not. 

For me these cookies turn out very chewy which I love but I find that they need to go longer than 8 minutes and there is that fear of burning them.  But there is a lot of brown sugar in this recipe (I did use light brown as indicated) which causes the cookies to appear darker as they cook so they look like they might be burning but they are not.  It is best to let these cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack otherwise they bend and tear all apart.  As for flavor they are very buttery and have a great almost molasses flavor from all the brown sugar.  Of the two recipes this one remains both mine and Brad's favorite and is definitely a ** YUM.

Lexis Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies**
(Makes: 30 - 4 inch cookies)

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugars, and beat until combined and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well blended. Add flour mixture, and beat on low speed until combined. Add the chocolate chips, and beat until combined.

 

Drop 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter at a time onto baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 8 minutes, rotating halfway through. Remove the cookies and the parchment paper from the baking sheets, and let cool on a rack.

 

Lexi's Famous (left) are almost like a lace cookie
while the Chewy Food Network (right) are classic chocolate chip

The Food Network recipe uses a good bit less butter and brown sugar and actually calls for dark brown sugar (and since I happened to have both I used the dark brown in this recipe). I only chilled the dough for one hour and had no problems with them staying fluffier versus flattening out too much and they were nicely done exactly at 12 minutes.  They turned out beautiful and tasted really good (** Yum), so good that if I had not also made the other recipe at the same time I might consider this the ideal recipe.  But the above recipe is so different in terms of flavor it wins out.  But If I wanted to make perfectly yummy cookies that would pack better I might chose this recipe just for that reason. 

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies**
(Makes: 30 - 2 inch cookies)

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together into a large bowl. Beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes (use the paddle attachment for a stand mixer). Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour or preferably overnight.

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges but still soft in the middle, about 12 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely.