Unrepentant Geek (matthew) wrote,
Unrepentant Geek
matthew

Science! Part 2

I know that you are all dying to know more about the Cookies of Science™. I tried some blind taste testing but that didn't work out as well as one might think. As mimsy pointed out the perfect chocolate chip cookie is a matter of taste, so different people liked different things. That said, there were definitely differences between the doughs.

First, between the plain and vacuum packed dough there was only a slight difference. They looked the same and tasted the same. The only difference that I saw was that the vacuum packed cookie seemed to fall apart in your mouth a little more readily.

As for the rested dough, there were some marked differences. Firstly I only baked those for 12 minutes instead of 13. I think that I should have held out for 13 since the time difference changed the texture of the cookie pretty dramatically. They were more moist, more buttery. They tended to leave an oily spot on the napkin where you set them down. The odd thing is that they were more golden brown than the regular dough, even though they were baked for less time.

Also the cookies baked 36 hours before were of course drier than the fresh cookies. This had a definite effect on the testers.

My conclusions thus far:

1) The sea salt on top of the cookie is a stroke of genius
2) Rested dough browns quicker

More research is called for. I'd like to mix a batch and rest it, then 36 hours later mix another batch and bake them together. If I can stick to the recipe the doughs should be pretty similar.

It's really amazing that you can bake such different cookies from a single dough. Most tasters saw differences between even the basic and vacuum packed cookies and were a little skeptical of my assurances that they were from the same batter.
Tags: cooking, science
Subscribe

  • posty post post

    Thanksgiving was pretty good. We went down to my parent's house and had dinner with them and my brother and his family. Jack is getting big and is…

  • Science!

    Today I stumbled on an article about making a better chocolate chip cookie which was linked from a blog entry about how to perhaps attain the same…

  • Random stuff I've been up to

    Today I went shopping and ended up looking at Shun knives. I didn't buy any because that's some serious cash, but now I know what I want so I can…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

  • 2 comments