Original subtitles

Hello? Oh, Allison, I just don't know what to do. My name's going to be mud.

Marsha? Oh.

Slow down.

Please, you've got to help me. Well, I was at the Locks and Latte, and I guess

set them down in the chair next to me.

Well, we'll go back and get them.

I did, Billy. They were gone.

Well, then go home and bake some more.

I'm never going to make the ladies luncheon by noon. Please, you've got to

me. You know, I've always wondered, what's the difference between a lunch

luncheon anyway?

This is no joke, Buster. I show up without those cookies, I've got to leave

town. Yeah?

Permanently? You know, I don't need you.

I can buy some cookies at the market.

Probably better than yours, anyway.

What did you say?

So you'll do it?

What kind?

Chocolate chip. And they had this pretty little pink wrapper. I don't do pink.

Okay, well, I'm at the corner of Crocker and Hine. Make them fast and make them

good. Eat?

You and that silly show.

Just make the cookies, will ya?

All right.

Good eat!

Having mired herself in yet another socio -culinary quagmire, my half

sister has turned to good eat for salvation.

Step one, recipe retrieval.

Ever since Ruth Wakefield traded her famous Toll House cookie recipe to the

Nestle Corporation in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate, the recipe

the back of this bag is served as the Magna Carta of American cookie baking.

I break this out every single time I make chocolate chip cookies, which is

to say I always make the same chocolate chip cookies. Because you see, as long

as you've got a little customizing know -how, you can basically adopt any good,

solid cookie recipe to suit your or your lame -brained sister's particular

needs. Now, my legal department has warned me not to actually read this

on air. So if you want to know where we deviate, just grab a bag and follow

along at home. But keep your mitts off the chip. We need them.

Knowing my sister's penchant for all things skinny, I've decided to execute

thin and crispy chocolate chip cookie variation.

It all starts with two and a quarter cups of bleached all -purpose flour

together with a teaspoon each of salt and baking soda, plus just a pinch more

baking soda.

Sifting now will mean better leavening later. Now, I'm a little pushed for

so I'm going to turn this over to a noted cookie colleague. You may know his

brother from... I told you never to mention that ruffian.

All he knows about cookies is how to shove them into his face.

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Forgot. Please, continue.

Well, baking soda, you see, reduces the acidity of the batter, thus raising the

temperature at which the batter sets.

So, if you desire a flatter cookie, increasing the soda called for in the

by up to half would be appropriate.

And now, the wet stuff. One egg, mixed with two ounces of whole milk.

Splendid shot. Thank you.

And one and one half teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Mix thoroughly and bring to room temperature.

Since eggs tend to puff rather than spread, replacing one or all of the eggs

with milk will promote spreading.

Now that the dry goods and the wet works are assembled, it's time to...

cream, two sticks of butter in your trusty stand mixer. Beauty, isn't it?

get that right in there and start it out on low.

Nothing affects a cookie's texture more than the melting characteristics of its

fat. Butter has a sharp melting point, meaning that there are just a few

difference between solid and liquid dates.

So, Conversion occurs at a relatively low temperature.

The resulting batter spreads prior to setting.

Old Blue, he's gone.

What a moron.

W!

W! Old Blue died!

W! Didn't I tell you to donate that thing to a museum?

W, I ain't got time to plead, okay? A lot has changed since your grandmother

that clunker in bingo.

It was a raffle!

Traditional blade mixers like Old Blue were nothing more than motorized egg

beaters. So?

Ever tried kneading a bread dough with an egg beater? No.

The best of today's mixers feature a single post driven by a planetary

and are capable of hosting an array of interchangeable attachments.

Oh, planetary means the post spins on its axis while orbiting around an

point at the same time, like the moon travels around the Earth, right?

Nice to see you've done your homework for once.

Also, you want a sturdy work bowl that locks into place.

Old Blue had a spinning bowl.

Aerating a batter or developing a bread dough requires friction, and that means

a bowl that stays firm. Hey, this one reminds me of you.

Efficient. Cranky.

Personally, I think the swing -up head allows for better bowl access.

You can even remove the bowl without dismantling the beaters.

A 300 -watt variable -speed power plant drives the action, while a rock -solid

chassis and a wide footprint provide quiet stability.

Beautiful and lethal.

All in all, a lifetime investment that won't break the bank.

I'll take it. Just put it on my account, will you?

That'll be cash for you, sir.

Don't bother.

Bye -bye, old blue.

It really is best to move on. Don't you think?

On to creaming this two sticks of butter. We're going to start it off on

just to loosen it up.

One cup of white sugar.

That's half a cup and another half cup.

And half a cup of brown sugar. I like to use the light brown kind, but you can

use the dark if you like.

There.

It should be noted that the higher ratio of white to brown sugar will also lend

Christmas to the final cookie.

Thank you, cookie fiend, for that clarification.

Make yourself at home.

Now, there are a lot of cookie recipes that call for this business of creaming

the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.

Why bother? After all, the butter would soften by itself, right? Well, it would,

but only if it started to melt. And, of course, since butter melts rather

quickly once it gets soft... That would mean it would separate, there'd be water

and fat, it would be bad. By working cold butter together with the sugar, the

tiny sharp sugar crystals actually cut into the butter, creating very, very

small bubbles. And those bubbles will make it easier for other ingredients to

integrate into the batter.

Now there, that's what creaming ought to look like. All the added volume is

nothing but air. Now the word creaming also refers to a general method of

or cake construction.

A lot of professional recipes are nothing more than an ingredient list

by the word printing method.

Now, in cookie dump, that denotes a very simple but fixed order.

Cream the sugar and fat together at a relatively high speed until they are

and fluffy.

Then reduce the mixer speed and slowly and completely incorporate the eggs and

the liquid. Then finish by adding the dry stuff a little at a time, scraping

sides of the bowl as you go.

Just like that.

Now, stir in two cups of your chunks of choice, in our case, the chocolate

morsels, and you are well battered.

Set your oven to 375 and arm for scooping.

Consistent scoopage is crucial in cookie baking because even small discrepancies

from cookie to cookie can result in one cookie looking like a gluey glop while

its neighbor resembles burnt tree bark. The secret to clone -like cookies is to

not drop them on the pan with a spoon.

Use a disher. Those of you that saw our chocolate show, The Art of Darkness,

already know my dedication to this delivery device.

Now, this is a number 20 disher, which means each and every one of the cookies

it scoops will be a 20th of... and a quart, roughly one and a half ounces by

volume. If you look closely, the number's usually engraved right on the

These are available good and cheap at your local restaurant supply house, as

these heavy aluminum half sheet pans and sheet parchment.

By the way... Parchment and wax paper are not the same thing.

Parchment is coated with silicone, okay, which is the same stuff used to caulk

bathtubs, patch boats, and lubricate big industrial things.

Besides possessing excellent release characteristics, silicone is extremely

resistant, unlike the wax and wax paper, which melts and makes everything it

touches taste like these.

The other great thing about baking on parchment is that no matter how many

cookies you plan on baking, you only need two pans because you can just stage

everything on parchment and then slide them off and on the pans as you go. You

can even freeze the cookies on parchment and cook them later.

Now remember, you've got to give these little guys room to grow. I never put

more than six on a pan at one time.

How long are they going to take? Well, 13 to 15 minutes, depending on your

But always start checking in on them after about five minutes. The reason?

Browning. Depending on your oven, the back ones may start to brown before the

front ones, and you may have to rotate the pans a couple of times. Oh, and

remember, the more pans you put in, the longer the cook time.

Now, when it comes to doneness, cookies have a lot in common with custard, which

is that they should come out of the oven before they look completely done. In

fact, as soon as the edges are kind of brown and crispy looking, it's time to

bail. If the thinners are already hard and set, guess what? They're already

burned.

These, however, aren't.

Once they're out of the oven, you want to de -pan as soon as you can.

the heat in the pan will continue to cook the bottom of the cookie.

That isn't good.

Now, once they are completely cooled, you move them to whatever vessel you

like. I generally just roll them up and pop them into my friendly neighborhood

cooking jar.

In here, they'll last about an hour and a half, at least around here.

If you're looking for a longer -term option, consider a zip -top bag where

they'll last at room temperature for a week, or you can even put them in a

freezer bag and freeze them for up to three months.

Right.

have you been? I could have made cookies from roadkill by now.

You're welcome.

Hey, you dropped a stitch, right?

Very nice.

Very nice?

What does that mean?

Nothing. It's just that mine are puffier, fluffier. These are flat and

They'll know they're not mine. Well, they're not yours.

Puffy, fluffy, fine.

a cup of butter flavored shortening into the bowl along with

three quarters of a cup of regular white sugar and

one whole cup of brown sugar.

Just pack and sweep and pack and sweep.

Now, if you're curious about the change from butter to shortening, well, it's a

curious thing. We better ask Big Green over there. Hey, Big Green, what's with

the shortening?

Well, shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter, so it remains

longer, giving the batter time to rise and set before it spreads.

Increasing the ratio of brown to white sugar also creates a more tender cookie.

Now leave me alone.

You've got to give it to him. He knows his stuff.

Now, while that's creaming, we concentrate on the dry goods. Two and a

cups of cake flour, sifted together with a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon and a

half of baking powder.

That's a lot of changes there. Why?

Why?

The low -protein cake flour will tie up less moisture, making it available for

steam production.

Steam will lift the batter in the oven, producing a fluffy, cake -like batter.

Switching from baking powder to soda enhances fluffiness by creating an

batter which will set quicker and spread less.

Now as soon as your shortening and sugar are light and fluffy, which won't take

near as long as the butter because the shortening is not as hard, go ahead and

add the wet work.

One egg, two eggs, and

the vanilla.

teaspoon and a half of course and bring the speed up again until everything is

thoroughly incorporated

Now, as soon as that is all the way in there, we're going to slowly add the dry

goods. And I usually do this in three installments. Why?

Well, if you just dump it all in there, your mixer's going to throw it all over

the counter, and then it won't be inside your cookies, and that's not good.

The other reason is, well, it's got to do with moisture and the way that flour

absorbs moisture, which is relatively slowly.

If you work in about three batches, you're going to allow time for the

actually form.

There's the second installment.

Always add it on a low speed, and once the flour's worked in, turn it back up

that the batter can be.

And installment number three.

There.

After in your chips, two cups once again.

And don't turn it up too high.

And once the chips are fully integrated, turn up the speed and slowly bring the

head of the mixer out. That'll leave the batter in the bowl instead of on the

paddle. And now for something completely different.

Chill death.

Why chill? Why ask me?

Cold dough spreads slowly,

giving the cookie time to climb before setting.

When your batter has thoroughly chilled, it's time to scoop and bake. And by the

way, the smaller the scoop, the more puff the cookie will have.

Remove when golden, brown, and puffy. Cool, package, and deliver to your

thankless sibling.

There you go, sis. Light, fluffy, cakey. Where did those come from?

Well, you know, all this cookie talk, I got hungry.

So I went right over to that little bakery and got some cookies. Very chewy.

Chewy. Fine.

Back to butter, but this time we're going to melt it. Two sticks.

Eight ounces, 16 tablespoons, 48 teaspoons in a heavy, medium saucepan

heat. While that melts, sift together two and a quarter cups of bread flour

a teaspoon each of salt and baking soda. Why?

Well, where's that big puppet I hired?

Sorry. The water from the melted butter will combine during agitation with the

higher protein of the bread flour, therefore producing gluten.

which is chewy.

Also, since bread flour can absorb much more liquid than all -purpose flour,

more moisture will stay in the cooking.

Add the now -melted butter to the mixing bowl and add a quarter

cup of white sugar and a quarter cup of brown sugar,

plus a whole cup of brown sugar.

And I should mention that the darker the sugar you use, the chewier the cookies

are going to be.

Why?

Brown sugar is coated in molasses.

Molasses loves moisture.

By increasing the amount of brown sugar,

The finished cookies are guaranteed to attract H2O from the air, keeping them

moist and to it.

And now the wet works.

Up to this point, we've strictly been two -egg cookies, but now we're going to

make a change. I'm going to go with one whole egg.

Let that work its way in. And one egg yolk.

Why the change?

I'll take this one.

It's got to do with egg whites. You see, egg whites dry out baked goods. That's

kind of what they do.

And a chewy cookie has got to be moist. So not only are we going to get rid of

one egg white, we're actually going to add an ounce, two tablespoons of milk,

and of course, our teaspoon and a half of vanilla.

As soon as that is integrated, we can go with the dry stuff.

By the way, vanilla extract is produced by macerating chopped beans in a

solution of alcohol and water.

Now in this country, real vanilla extract must contain 35 % alcohol and 13

ounces of beans per gallon.

Double strength extracts contain the same amount of alcohol but twice the

Imitation vanilla extract is made from wood and other stuff.

Vanilla flavoring, on the other hand, is a combination of imitation and pure

extract.

Oh, you!

Where'd you get the cookies, freak?

Add this nice and slow, scraping down the bowl as you go.

Now, as soon as your batter comes together, time to go with the two cups

chips.

Once those are thoroughly stirred in, well, you know the rest of the drill.

Chill, scoop, bake, cool, pack, yada, yada, yada, yada.

So what have we learned, other than that my sister should be drawn and

quartered? Well, even subtle variations in the course of a recipe can steer a

cookie to some deliciously different places.

Now take your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, add a little extra soda,

replace some or all of the eggs with milk, up the ratio of white to brown

and use butter rather than shortening.

Thin, crisp cookies will result.

If your tastes run to the soft and cakey, use cake flour, baking powder

than soda, and shortening instead of butter.

Chilling the batter and scooping on the small side will add to the puff factor,

too. Now, finally, chewiness calls for melting the butter, holding back on the

egg whites, and using more, if not all, brown sugar.

Any way you go, you'll definitely have goodies.

Hey, Miss, do you want to buy some cookies?

Cookies!

That's not bad, but you might think of changing the overall shortening the

butter ratio.

You talk funny, mister.