Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book - Bruce Weinstein [2]
A Word About This Book
The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book is another installment in the Ultimate series, one that began with The Ultimate Ice Cream Book and has continued through various incarnations, including party drinks, candy, shrimp, brownies, potatoes, and muffins. Chocolate cookies are a natural next step in this parade of America’s favorite fun foods, all fast yet homey.
Like the other ultimate books, this one presents a series of base recipes arranged alphabetically: Almond Coconut Cookies, Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies, etc. Most of the base recipes are followed by variations, usually an added or substituted ingredient or two: a little mint extract, some white chocolate chips, things like that. A few cookies are such classics, or the dough is so delicate, that variations proved impossible. These we’ve let stand on their own. But in the end, our notion for the Ultimate books holds true even here: we give you recipes you can customize to your personal taste—or style.
That said, we do have predilections, best confessed up front. Some of our chocolate cookies are not as sweet as some others you may have bought or made. If you have an achingly active sweet tooth, search out our recipes for Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 39), Triple Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 217), and the like. However, we believe cutting down on the sugar a bit lets the dense, rich taste of the chocolate shine through, particularly if you’re already using semisweet chocolate in the recipe. It’s not that we’re sugarphobic (ice cream, candy, and brownie books should put to rest any fears). We’re just addicted to chocolate.
What’s more, we like crunchy chocolate chip cookies and softer dark chocolate cookies. If you’re not exactly in synch with our tastes, we have some ways around them, as you’ll see in the variations—ideas, that is, for turning crunchy cookies into cakey ones and vice versa.
Still, you glance through the base recipes, looking for something to scratch that cookie itch, and you want just the right thing. To help you decide, we’ve created a “crunch-o-meter” at the head of each recipe.
Some cookies fall between these markings, as you’ll see—halfway between cakey and crunchy, say. And any batch of cookies can be affected by the day’s humidity (drier days produce crisper cookies). The baking time of any batch can also be modified for somewhat different results (shorter is usually softer; longer, crunchier). But this crunch-o-meter should give you a general idea of which cookies are which.
All hints and notations aside, the joy of baking is the joy of the unexpected. It’s an organic process, like life: you get what you make and what’s been made of it. And that’s enough of a reason to bake up a batch of cookies. Besides eating them, of course.
On Baking Chocolate Cookies
Tips for Success
Getting Started
1. Position the oven racks as directed.
A few recipes ask you to position the oven rack in the center of the oven; a few others, in the top third only; and a very few, in odd configurations like the center and top third. Most, however, ask you to stack the racks: one in the top third, the other in the bottom third. In this case, don’t place one rack directly over the other. Space them out for better air flow.
2. Preheat the oven.
Cookies require even heat to bake properly. Let the oven preheat for 15 minutes, so it’s good and hot before you put the cookies in.
3. Prepare the baking sheets as directed.
As schoolmarmish as it sounds, there’s really only one thing we can say: follow the recipe. If it asks you to grease the sheet, don’t skip this step, even if you’re using nonstick baking sheets. A thin layer of fat between the metal and the cookies will yield crisper, crunchier bottoms, more in keeping with that standard cookie texture.
Don’t grease a baking sheet if the recipe calls for parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. The