Chocolate chip cookies Q & A

Chocolate chip cookies? Goodness, what is there to ask about them? Is this really worth a blog post?

Why not? It’s a topic I know.

In college, I was required to take a class in public speaking. I’m so not into talking to a group of people, but I did it. One of the class assignments was to give an informative talk — how-to, something like that — with appropriate visual aids. I did baking chocolate chip cookies, and I passed around samples of the dough at the various stages of preparation, with plenty of chocolate chip cookies for everyone to demonstrate that I knew what I was talking about.

On to the questions:

Q: Do you have a favorite chocolate chip recipe?

A: For the longest time, I used a modified version of the Tollhouse Cookie recipe (half-melted butter), and then for a while, I tried the one that comes with butter-flavored Crisco sticks. These days, I glance at the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip package, use a mix of butter and shortening, and occasionally even add baking powder for a more “puffy” cookie.

Q: Do you have any favorite brands that you use?

A: King Arthur flour. For the chips, not as much, although I’ve stopped using Nestle — they don’t melt properly for other recipes, so I don’t buy them. (Love oatmeal fudge bars, must be able to melt the chips!) For vanilla, not a brand, but a condition: No sweetener added.

Q: Cookie dough or cookies?

A: Both! I usually bake a couple dozen cookies and keep the rest as dough for people to munch on.

Any other questions? Leave them in the comments! As always, thanks for reading!

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5 Responses to Chocolate chip cookies Q & A

  1. BonnieRS says:

    Excellent topic 🙂 I just buy different chips for the other apps, because nothing melts quite like Nestle’s semisweet in a cookie.

    • Erin says:

      Oh, that was the question I forgot — semisweet, dark, or milk? Depending, I might use any or all. For preference, though, I go with milk. And they melt better, I think.

  2. The most important thing is: no eggs. I’ve never been able to figure out why people ruin perfectly good cookies with eggs which do nothing but ruin the texture. Shortening is pretty eww’y stuff as well.

    Other important things: high-quality chocolate (I wouldn’t go near NestlĂ© with a ten-foot pole), muscovado sugar, enough salt. Some people even sprinkle salt on the top after baking…

    • Erin says:

      You would hate my cookies, then, because I do use eggs. I do, though, keep the number down — 3 eggs is much too cakey, and sometimes even 2 is too many.

      I frequently add no salt at all, though I use it more often now than I did growing up.

  3. Kathleen Hammond says:

    I remember the chocolate chip cookie speech preparations. I think the house was using Guittard’s at the time. Those I miss…the chips and the cookies. It was a very original presentation. Thinking outside the box even then weren’t you?

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