Making cookie memories
Bakers share their tips to create the perfect tasty treat to serve family and friends
Chocolate chip cookies have been a popular treat for people of all ages ever since Ruth Wakefield, operator of the Toll House Inn, invented the tasty morsel in Whitman, Mass., in 1939.
Back then, Wakefield decided to add broken bits of a Nestle semi-sweet chocolate bar to her cookie recipe. As the Nestle website states, Wakefield had expected the chocolate to melt; instead, the chunks kept their shape and softened to a creamy texture.
The new Toll House Crunch Cookie recipe immediately became popular with customers, and soon the treat spread beyond Massachusetts. Even soldiers at the battlefields of the Second World War received care packages that included the famed cookies. In 1997, Wakefield’s invention became the official cookie of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Chocolate chip cookies are so well-loved they have their own national day of recognition in Canada on Aug. 4.
MANY VERSIONS
While the original version of Wakefield’s invention remains popular – Nestle continues to include her recipe on its website and on wrappers of certain products — many professional and amateur bakers often look for new variations on the old favourite.
Occasionally, a friendly debate can be fired up over what constitutes a real chocolate chip cookie.
Dianne Fullerton, who owns the Borrowed Kitchen’s Sugar Shack, a cozy take-out bakery in Alexandria, P.E.I., says she’s a bit of a traditionalist, using semi-sweet chocolate chips in her recipe. And while she also sells cookies that contain additional ingredients, Fullerton says she wouldn’t consider something with, for example, oats, to be a chocolate chip cookie.
“Sometimes I add butterscotch chips, white chocolate, salted caramel and I call them triple chip,” she said.
Regardless, the classic version of the cookie is popular with Fullerton’s customers, and she was busy making a couple of batches one Friday morning recently. She said one of the secrets to making a good chocolate chip cookie is taking them out of the oven just before they’re done.
“That’s when they’re nice, soft and gooey — they finish baking just from the heat of the pan,” she said. “Most people, in my opinion, don’t like hard, crunchy cookies.”
Peter Hogan of Torbay, N.L., operates his own takeout only bakery, Torbakery. The long-time baker worked at Georgetown Bakery in St. John’s for many years, then worked a four-year stint in bakeries across Europe. He finally returned home to open his own bakery, and the chocolate chip cookie was the item he put by far the most work into before unveilling it to the public.
“It’s easily one of our most popular sweets,” Hogan said.
His European baking experience is undoubtedly a major influence in that cookie’s success.
“I use 100 per cent rye flour,” he said, noting that rye flour is very commonly used in Germany for breads and other items. “It’s not really used in sweets very much, it’s heavy and dense – but rye is a natural sweetener.”
While the recipe is a closely held secret, Hogan did reveal some tricks of the trade. He uses butter, not margarine, and he browns the butter first.
“It gives it a really beautiful caramel flavour to the cookie,” he said.
Hogan also uses only brown sugar, no white sugar, creating a darker, richer flavour. And instead of semi-sweet, Hogan uses dark chocolate chips.
“The cookies are so sweet already that you don’t need that extra bit of sweetness,” he said.
TIPS AND TRICKS
Of course, you can bake your own cookies at home, too. Lois Gill operates the Stuffed at the Gill’s blog from Botwood, N.L., which is loaded with recipes of all kinds, including several variations of chocolate chip cookies that include additions like oatmeal, banana and raisin.
She says anyone considering baking cookies for the first time should start with simple recipes from trusted sources like a cookbook or even the recipes printed on the chocolate chip package.
“Baking is a science, not luck,” she said. “Follow the recipe exactly as written the first time you make it. Don’t change the basic ingredient ratios of flour, sugar, leavening agents and fats.”
Some tips Gill has regarding ingredients: butter and margarine are usually interchangeable for texture, but not for taste. And don’t forget the salt.
“If substituting butter for some or all of the shortening in a recipe, be aware that the dough may spread more if using butter,” she said. “Make adjustments for this by chilling the dough before baking. Or you can just have a slightly thinner cookie.”
Gill said while ingredients such as real butter and pure vanilla extract are the “best”, they’re often expensive, so use the best ingredients you can afford.
Gill also wants bakers to ensure their oven is set properly.
“If the instructions say to bake a cookie at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes and your cookies are burnt to a crisp or pale and under baked, adjust your oven temperature,” she said.
Once in the oven, the cookies should bake for a shorter or longer time, depending on what you prefer.
“If you like a soft, chewy centre, bake the minimum amount of time,” Gill said. “Ten minutes instead of 12 for a recipe that says bake 10-12 minutes. The longer the cookie bakes, the drier it becomes.”
And don’t be upset if the result isn’t perfect. Gill said unless the salt and sugar get mixed up, most cookies will still be quite edible.
“Your family and friends won’t mind eating your failures,” she said.
MEMORIES AND TRADITIONS
Cookies, both the baking and the eating, also create memories. Gill recalled her youth when her father would make cookies every Sunday morning.
“Small, rounded lumps of butterscotch-tasting cookie dough, studded with semisweet chocolate chips and a generous amount of chopped walnuts,” she said.
“My sister and I loved them; our friends loved them. We ate most of them Sunday afternoon, every mouthful dunked in cold, fresh milk. I have never been able to replicate the recipe, but memory can be stronger than truth.”
Cora MacIntyre of Georgetown Royalty, P.E.I., has also made memories with one special recipe which has been passed down over the generations. MacIntyre, who grew up in Ontario, says her mother taught her the recipe, which was given to her by a neighbour.
“My mom and I used to make them together,” she said. “I took over the job by myself when I was about 10 or 11. And the boys (my children) make them now, which is good.”
She said the big secret for her recipe’s success is the baking time.
“We like soft chewy cookies, so (during baking) we stop just when they start to turn a little golden. But if you want that crunchiness, you can cook them longer.”
MacIntyre’s recipe does include oats, which she says gives it that “extra chewiness” as well as added fibre.
At her past job facilitating programs for the Families First Resource Centre in Montague, MacIntrye would often bring a batch of cookies for parents and children to snack on. The cookies were always a hit.
“Everyone wanted them; the recipe is (likely) around the countryside now,” she said.
FLAVOUR WINS OUT
At the end of the day, a perfect chocolate chip cookie is simply how you like it. Hogan says while the recipe he developed is “the” chocolate chip cookie for the purposes of his bakery, “I also love cookies with pumpkin seeds, for example, which adds crunchiness. I’m very accepting of different cookies.”
Simplicity is at the heart of what makes a chocolate chip cookie great, Hogan said.
“People can add a wide variety of extra ingredients, but at its base, it’s chewy, soft and delicious.”
And Gill echoes Hogan’s beliefs, saying there really isn’t any such thing as the “best” cookie.
“Over the years, I’ve tried many best chocolate chip cookie recipes only to find they were not the best I’ve ever eaten,” she said. “The very best chocolate chip cookie is the one you and your family love regardless of what the experts may say.”
Back in P.E.I., MacIntyre says the great thing about cookies is that they’re quick and always fun to make with someone else, whether it was baking with her mother as a child or carrying on the tradition with her own boys. And it was fun even when things got messy, as they often did.
“Cookies bring joy, when it comes right down to it,” she said. Cream margarine and sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir together until smooth. Add soda, powder, salt and stir in. Stir in oats. Stir flour in, two cups at a time. Add chocolate.
Drop cookies on sheet and cook at 350 for nine to 12 minutes, depending how hot oven is.
“We like our cookies soft, so I take them out when they are slightly golden and the tops are set,” says MacIntyre.
“Hint for mixing: I add a little extra flour depending on how sticky dough is. Regular Becel is my choice for margarine. Parkay seems to leave dough way too sticky. You should be able to pick dough up (in your) hands to form loose balls.”
Yields approximately 50100 cookies; recipe can also be cut in half.