cookies crispy vs soft

I found this a couple months ago while researching the crispy vs. soft issue...

On Wed 25 Jan 2006 09:40:52p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Richard Crowley?

Great reference!

Stewart on the subject that just happened to be in a local paper. I'd be happy to key it in if it is still of interest. Wendy yes please

On Thu 26 Jan 2006 12:00:26p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Jude?

I would also be very interested. Thanks!

Some of that is at odds with popular recipes and personal experience.

For example, granted that Alton Brown is an admittedly novice baker at best, his three chocolate chip cookie recipes are often posted and many people have used them.

The above article states that bread flour results in crispier cookies, while the 'chewey' recipe uses bread flour.

It also states, "Butter melts at a much lower temperature than the other solid fats, so cookies made with it will tend to spread out. And oil, since it already is a liquid at room temperature, produces cookies that keep their shape."

In my personal experience, this isn't true.

My own experimentation has been with peanut butter cookies. In those, the peanut butter necessarily amounts for a large portion of the fat. I find that the more 'natural' peanut butter - where the primary fat is peanut oil - produces cookies that are hard and have an oily texture, where 'stabilized' peanut butters in which much of the peanut oil has been replaced with shortening produces soft cookies with a dry texture.

And, fwiw, the peanut oil version bakes up a little bit flatter.

Aside from that . . . . lets put it this way - I'm a single guy with a career in a neighborhood full of married college students with very young children.

Since i have next to nothing in common with most of my neighbors, who in any case are usually only around for 8 months or so, and i am loathe to spend time around small children with whom i am not related, I end up being somewhat reclusive.

Many of these people are, however, very friendly. The ones who manage not to block my parking space with a truck when they move in receive gifts of baked goods from me.

Every now and then, a friendly neighbor will give me a plate of cookies.

They are always awful. Stiff but ductile. Oily, leaving a stain on the paper plate. You know these cookies. You have eaten these yourself and fought to keep smiling while thinking of a way to decline 2nd helpings.

Their hearts are in the right place but they can't bake worth a damn. I haven't been able to think of a way to politely suggest that there is a road to enlightenment that they should seek.

I don't know for sure, but i strongly suspect that these cookies are made with 62% fat "spread" stick products. Because this is what a single income family of 3 with at least one in college can afford.

:

I tend to agree of that....basing upon his recipes I can deduce that he is an amateur baker who compensates his deficient baking ability with good promotional skills .< grin>....no different from many cookbook authors.....that many newsgroup posters regards as demi- gods in the kitchen....

Many of the hobbyist cooks and unfortunately even some professional cooks are shallow ....an in extreme ..cases .....stupid... They load their limited book shelves with such literary trash ......... Collecting cookery books does not make you a better cook or baker if you lack common sense......And if a certain cook or chef has practical common sense he or she will not prodigiously collect books to enhance his/her cooking skills...!

Unless he or she just enjoyed reading books for the sake of its entertainment value if not literary content...then that is understandable.....

Technically, higher gluten flours tend to result in tough eating cookies which shrinks a lot ,therefore results in cookies that have lower diameters, lower cookie spread to height ratio....are more chewier..

..If the fat content is not that high and is mixed also improperly it will drastically affect the cookie quality.

One factor that influences crispiness is the amount of crystallline and undissolved sugar; in the cookie dough. . Higher sugar level with higher gluten flours results in a crispier cookie than with lower gluten flours.

Cookies differ from the other baked products such as cakes due to their limited moisture so the gluten is not well hydrated and tend to exist patly in a flinty state due to coating of unhydrated flour to the partially hydrated portions .The texture can be modified by using more fat and sugar Less tenderizing ingredients in form of fat and sugar results tough eating cookies.( too chewy)

Yes..... The fact is butter if compared with other plasticized solid fats used in cookie baking has a lower melting point; Oil does not exhibit the melting characteristics if compared to fats containing a mixture of hard fat and vegetable oil found in vegetable shortening.

t>he peanut butter necessarily amounts for a large portion of the fat. I

'>stabilized' peanut butters in which much of the peanut oil has been

It depends on the cookie formulations in terms of the ratios among flour , fats and sugar.

Indeed.....oils tend to promote cookie spread and so results in flatter cookies.

here is a recipe for all to consider. It makes a very thin cookie. I think it might have originated from Mahtha. Anyway they are very good.

Famous Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter 3 cups packed brown sugar 1 cup sugar 4 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 3 1/2 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Grease two baking sheets with butter, or line with Silpat baking mats. Martha Stewart bakes these on a cast iron cookie sheet. Good luck with that! Cream butter until smooth; add sugars, and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Into a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Slowly beat dry ingredients into wet mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.
2. Drop dough onto prepared baking sheets--allow for ridiculous amounts of spreading. That's how they're crispy AND chewy! Bake until golden, 8 to 10 minutes.