Cookies... Give me your best, regional or family recipe.

[Spectre38]

I was in the mood to bake this evening since I couldn't sleep and made some basic chocolate chip cookies... I know, kind of boring but they turned out great.

I got to thinking since this is a large international forum, there have to be some pretty wonderful cookie recipes that I am not familiar with. I am interested in recipes that are U.S. regional as well as international.

Maybe you have a recipe that your family has passed from generation to generation? Maybe your neck of the woods is known for a traditional cookie that isn't necessarily mainstream... or just plain forgotten by modern society.

Hit me with them... or just tell me your favorite.

[GB-man]

Try making a milk bar “compost cookie” clone. They are delicious.

Unfortunately I don’t have a recipe I normally just bought them from the source lol

[Spectre38]

Nothing huh? Ok, it was worth a try....

[tritium8]

I'm a classic chocolate chip cookie guy but crispy outside and chewy inside. I also enjoy the little peanut butter cookie with the Hershey kiss on top. What can I say, I'm a simple man.

[Blansky]

Too much sugar. I stopped eating them.

Except at Christmas.

[DonRickles]

I’m not really the baker in my home, but in my opinion a recipe is only a guide. Every Baker puts a little bit of them self into each thing the bake. A little pinch of this a dash of that and a sprinkle to boot!

Now my wives Kamish Bread, Rugelach, and macaroons are to die for! Getting these recipes from her secret cookbook is a near impossibility! Handed down for decades!

I’ll try! lol 😆

[Spectre38]

Much to the delight of many of my coworkers, mom, girlfriend, girlfriends mom, and neighbors, I have made lemon cookies, peanut butter, chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies within the last two weeks. I personally have only eaten about 6-10 cookies, but have made approximately 16 dozen.

[HHIslander]

As boring as it sounds, we make the toll house recipe on the back of the bag of Nestle chips and that's the only cookie that's ever been made in our house. We deep fry Oreos too, try that if you have never done it.

[Mendota]

I do a lot of baking and as we are heading into fall, this is good timing since baking season is upon us. King Arthur Flour has a fantastic website with a searchable database of thousands of amazing recipes. If you can think of it, it's there. These are all photo tutorials and often the recipe is linked to their baking blog, where you will get even more in depth tips and instruction. They even have a toll-free baker's hotline that you can call if you ever are in the middle of baking and need help with something.

Professional bakers staff the hotline and you don't have to be a customer. They are literally just there to help you because they love to bake!!

On their website blog you will also find experiments they have performed with baking cookies using different sugars and blends, different flours, different fats, and ratios of all of these mixed. It's fascinating to see the differences side by side showing what the results are with using different sugars or fats, etc. They will line them all up in the pics and label each cookie.

Easy tip - for cookies use a 50/50 blend of shortening and butter. I use butter flavor Crisco. All butter creates a flatter, more spread out and crisp cookie with lots of butter flavor but greasy. All shortening creates a rounded, taller, less spread out cookie with less flavor. Swapping butter flavor Crisco for regular shortening imparts that butter flavor back into the cookie, with the benefit of the shortening, and then using a 50/50 blend of butter and shortening gives a nice balance between thin and spread out, versus tall and compact. When you buy cookies from a bakery, that's what they are doing. They are playing with the ratios of the fats and they err on the side of more shortening while still getting some of the benefits of real butter. Each fat adds its own benefits and you get the best of both worlds.

You can experiment with your sugars, too. The typical recipe has a 50/50 mix of white and light brown, but play with that. I sometimes like to use dark brown sugar instead of the light brown. It adds a nice, rich flavor. Or out of the portion that calls for brown sugar, do a blend of both dark brown and light brown.

Chill your dough before baking. Resist the temptation to go straight from mixing to baking. You should chill it and let everything set and allow the flavors and chemical processes to start taking place. Also, chilled dough doesn't flatten and spread out like warm dough does. The flattest cookies are made with all butter and room temp dough. The tallest ones are shortening and chilled dough.

Another experiment they did was with vanilla extracts. They used all different types and then brought in professional pastry chefs from Manhattan and all over NYC to taste test. Guess which won hands down for baked goods? Imitation vanilla! They all said it has the best flavor for items that are baked at higher temps, like cookies. Vanillin is what gives the flavor, and because all natural extracts use alcohol as a base and have less vanillin, this all evaporates during baking. Imitation vanilla does not use alcohol as the base and it has more actual vanillin, so the flavor remains after baking at high temps.

For items that are not being baked at higher temps, including sauces, desserts, and other things that are maybe baked for a short time at lower temps (creme brulee) then use real vanilla. At room temp or chilled, then real vanilla has a better flavor. The top pastry chefs experiment and use varieties of vanillas for different purposes.

Use these tips and your "back of the bag" results will be better than many bakeries. I guarantee it.

[gnuyork]

I don't really have any family recipes, though maybe my mom's peanut butter cookies (not sure if it's unique)...

Standard choc chip are my favorite, along with above mentioned peanutbutter.
Also give these a try:
Murder cookies (Scotch cookies):
https://www.thekitchn.com/reddit-mur...eview-22941853

[gnuyork]

Originally Posted by Mendota

I do a lot of baking and as we are heading into fall, this is good timing since baking season is upon us. King Arthur Flour has a fantastic website with a searchable database of thousands of amazing recipes. If you can think of it, it's there. These are all photo tutorials and often the recipe is linked to their baking blog, where you will get even more in depth tips and instruction. They even have a toll-free baker's hotline that you can call if you ever are in the middle of baking and need help with something.

Professional bakers staff the hotline and you don't have to be a customer. They are literally just there to help you because they love to bake!!

On their website blog you will also find experiments they have performed with baking cookies using different sugars and blends, different flours, different fats, and ratios of all of these mixed. It's fascinating to see the differences side by side showing what the results are with using different sugars or fats, etc. They will line them all up in the pics and label each cookie.

Easy tip - for cookies use a 50/50 blend of shortening and butter. I use butter flavor Crisco. All butter creates a flatter, more spread out and crisp cookie with lots of butter flavor but greasy. All shortening creates a rounded, taller, less spread out cookie with less flavor. Swapping butter flavor Crisco for regular shortening imparts that butter flavor back into the cookie, with the benefit of the shortening, and then using a 50/50 blend of butter and shortening gives a nice balance between thin and spread out, versus tall and compact. When you buy cookies from a bakery, that's what they are doing. They are playing with the ratios of the fats and they err on the side of more shortening while still getting some of the benefits of real butter. Each fat adds its own benefits and you get the best of both worlds.

You can experiment with your sugars, too. The typical recipe has a 50/50 mix of white and light brown, but play with that. I sometimes like to use dark brown sugar instead of the light brown. It adds a nice, rich flavor. Or out of the portion that calls for brown sugar, do a blend of both dark brown and light brown.

Chill your dough before baking. Resist the temptation to go straight from mixing to baking. You should chill it and let everything set and allow the flavors and chemical processes to start taking place. Also, chilled dough doesn't flatten and spread out like warm dough does. The flattest cookies are made with all butter and room temp dough. The tallest ones are shortening and chilled dough.

Another experiment they did was with vanilla extracts. They used all different types and then brought in professional pastry chefs from Manhattan and all over NYC to taste test. Guess which won hands down for baked goods? Imitation vanilla! They all said it has the best flavor for items that are baked at higher temps, like cookies. Vanillin is what gives the flavor, and because all natural extracts use alcohol as a base and have less vanillin, this all evaporates during baking. Imitation vanilla does not use alcohol as the base and it has more actual vanillin, so the flavor remains after baking at high temps.

For items that are not being baked at higher temps, including sauces, desserts, and other things that are maybe baked for a short time at lower temps (creme brulee) then use real vanilla. At room temp or chilled, then real vanilla has a better flavor. The top pastry chefs experiment and use varieties of vanillas for different purposes.

Use these tips and your "back of the bag" results will be better than many bakeries. I guarantee it.

This is great information

[swils8610]

Chocolate Chip is my favorite.


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[Dr. Robert]

Not a baker, just a cookie monster.
I buy the chocolate chunk cookies at Costco. I am a fan.

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[alexjohhn]

not sure about the best but it's really delicious without a doubt you must try these cake cookies you would definitely love them. would love to hear the feedback.

[wiswrist]

I have favored brown butter chocolate chip cookies lately.

Something like this (with or without the toffee) ... https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/br...e-chip-cookies

[DLRIDES]

Duh ………………..

[Speedbird-1]

My kids used to love making these Delia Smith choc-chip cookies.
They always went down well.....very more-ish!


Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

INGREDIENTS
110g butter
150g light brown soft sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
75g toasted chopped hazelnuts
100g dark, milk or white chocolate chips
First put the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy.

Then beat in the egg and the vanilla extract before folding in the remaining ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Now take slightly rounded dessertspoonfuls of the dough and arrange them (well spaced out) on baking sheets. Next flatten each one slightly, then bake them one sheet at a time on the shelf near the centre of the oven for about 15–16 minutes or until the biscuits have turned a dark golden colour and
feel firm in the centre when lightly pressed.

As soon as the biscuits are baked, remove them from the baking sheets with the aid of a palette knife. Cool them on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

[binArt]

All ingredients at room temperature.

Dry bowl mix: 2.5 cups bread flour, one cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder. Blend with a whisk.

In a stand mixer:

Cream two sticks of butter into a cup of dark brown sugar.
Add seeds of one vanilla bean and continue mixing
Add two large eggs, one at a time, cream between additions
Slowly add dry bowl mix to creamed mixture.
Blend until consistent.
Remove from mixer, add one bag of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. Stir in with wooden spoon.
Rest for 15 minutes

Preheat oven to 425 F

Line two 1/4 sheet pans with parchment paper
Place twelve one-inch dough balls on each pan, equal spacing
Bake about 12 minutes (adjust for your oven)

Butter makes a flatter cookie. Bread flour makes a chewy cookie. A flat chewy cookie should be crisp on the bottom and al dente on the top.

Replace chips with nuts at equal ratio for a nuttier bite.

For double chocolate, replace 1/4 cup flour with 1/4 cup cocoa powder, replace vanilla with one tsp of mandarin orange zest, and add 1 gram of cayenne pepper to the dry bowl mix. Use milk chocolate chips.

[gnuyork]

Originally Posted by binArt

All ingredients at room temperature.

Dry bowl mix: 2.5 cups bread flour, one cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder. Blend with a whisk.

In a stand mixer:

Cream two sticks of butter into a cup of dark brown sugar.
Add seeds of one vanilla bean and continue mixing
Add two large eggs, one at a time, cream between additions
Slowly add dry bowl mix to creamed mixture.
Blend until consistent.
Remove from mixer, add one bag of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. Stir in with wooden spoon.
Rest for 15 minutes

Preheat oven to 425 F

Line two 1/4 sheet pans with parchment paper
Place twelve one-inch dough balls on each pan, equal spacing
Bake about 12 minutes (adjust for your oven)

Butter makes a flatter cookie. Bread flour makes a chewy cookie. A flat chewy cookie should be crisp on the bottom and al dente on the top.

Replace chips with nuts at equal ratio for a nuttier bite.

For double chocolate, replace 1/4 cup flour with 1/4 cup cocoa powder, replace vanilla with one tsp of mandarin orange zest, and add 1 gram of cayenne pepper to the dry bowl mix. Use milk chocolate chips.

Thanks for these tips... was alway wondering how to get chewy cookies... So Bread flour, eh. Cool.

[brandrea]

Mom mom makes the best peanut butter cookies. She won’t hand over any of her recipes

[Spectre38]

Originally Posted by brandrea

Mom mom makes the best peanut butter cookies. She won’t hand over any of her recipes

Brian, when she's not looking... take a picture of the recipe. just don't get caught.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by Spectre38

Brian, when she's not looking... take a picture of the recipe. just don't get caught.

[binArt]

Originally Posted by gnuyork

Thanks for these tips... was alway wondering how to get chewy cookies... So Bread flour, eh. Cool.

Bread flour is high protein. The protein makes for the chewy texture. For extra crisp cookies replace the bread flour with cake flour (lowest protein).

For taller cookies add more flour. The excess flour dries out the dough and the cookies spread less.

For extra sweet medium-tall cookies, keep the flour the same and add more powdered sugar. The powdered sugar has corn starch, which limits the spread early in the bake. The sugar behaves more like a liquid towards the end of the bake. But take care, excess sugar makes for a tricky caramelization end point - not much time between amazing and charcoal.

BTW, this recipe makes about three dozen cookies, more or less. By the time you get all the ingredients out, spill flour all over the wife's kitchen, and dirty a bunch of pans, you might as well make four batches. 12 dozen is a nice round figure.

[gnuyork]

Originally Posted by binArt

Bread flour is high protein. The protein makes for the chewy texture. For extra crisp cookies replace the bread flour with cake flour (lowest protein).

For taller cookies add more flour. The excess flour dries out the dough and the cookies spread less.

For extra sweet medium-tall cookies, keep the flour the same and add more powdered sugar. The powdered sugar has corn starch, which limits the spread early in the bake. The sugar behaves more like a liquid towards the end of the bake. But take care, excess sugar makes for a tricky caramelization end point - not much time between amazing and charcoal.

BTW, this recipe makes about three dozen cookies, more or less. By the time you get all the ingredients out, spill flour all over the wife's kitchen, and dirty a bunch of pans, you might as well make four batches. 12 dozen is a nice round figure.

Thanks.

[77T]

No bake, addictive, single sauce pan, simple recipe, 15 minutes total cook time to warm cookies. 60 minutes and all are gone…

PS: The first five ingredients go straight into saucepan. Prep & measure everything else into small bowls or ramikens for quick working time.

PPS: Lay out long sheets of parchment paper first - these will begin to set-up to final firmness quickly.

Place:
•1⁄2 cup butter
•2 cups sugar
•1⁄2 cup milk
•1⁄4 cup cocoa
•pinch salt (optional)
Into a 4 qt. sauce pan over med-high heat. Boil 1 minute. REMOVE FROM HEAT.

Quickly Add sequentially:
•1⁄2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky). Stir until melted.
•2 teaspoons vanilla - stir again.
•3 cups quick-cooking oats. Fold or stir the dry oats swiftly until they are completely coated.

Drop cookies by tablespoon (or use #60 disher) onto parchment or wax paper. Cool until set.




Optional: Using a #30 disher will get the job done quicker, less cookies, but yields a larger size product.


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[rolehex]

I don't bake but finding this thread deliciously entertaining.

[Chewbacca]

Lots of people giving up moms sacred cherished historical family recipes for nothing here.

[Mifune]

Originally Posted by Mendota

Chill your dough before baking. Resist the temptation to go straight from mixing to baking. You should chill it and let everything set and allow the flavors and chemical processes to start taking place. Also, chilled dough doesn't flatten and spread out like warm dough does. The flattest cookies are made with all butter and room temp dough. The tallest ones are shortening and chilled dough.

I guarantee it.

interesting...

[binArt]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca

Lots of people giving up moms sacred cherished historical family recipes for nothing here.

I confess that my recipe is not a family secret, but a standard bakers cookie recipe used as a template for a wide variety of treats.

[DJ TT 2002]

I would need to covertly slip you a handwritten copy through my operative, Clarence Beeks
Pick a parking garage in Philadelphia
Trust no one….