Cookie Chemistry

I was flipping through the Costco coupons last week, when I saw what I thought was a joke: a coupon for "Hollywood Cookie Diet" cookies.

Google quickly told me that the Hollywood Cookie Diet replaces cookies with meals. Basically you eat a cookie or two for breakfast, a cookie or two for lunch and a normal dinner. And yeah. They're cookies. Fortified, 150-calorie cookies.

Turns out, according to this, I have been dieting my whole life.

I also, though serious investigative work, have determined that Cookie Love is likely a hereditary trait. Much like the tendency certain families have towards chemical dependency, the individuals in my family have a tendency towards cookie dependency, eating whole batches of cookies on a semi-consistant basis.

And, it turns out, the chemistry between us and cookies all comes down to...chemistry.

Cookie making is a science. The type of fat used, the amount of sugar, the protein content of the flour...each can dramatically alter the end product, giving you on one extreme, crispy pancake cookies with no substance -- or the other, those dense, dry, mountain-like cookies I remember trying to get down with a class of Kool-Aid during VBS. Although the perfect cookie is akin to the holy grail (you'll never find it), we can enjoy better cookies through chemistry:

who you callin' 
FAT

• Shortening is 100% fat and has a higher melting temperature. Which is why cookies made with shortening hold their shape a little better. (People who eats lots of shortening, on the other hand?....not so much.) 
• Butter is about 80% fat -- the rest water -- and has a lower melting temperature. So cookies made with butter will spread.
• No respectable cookie maker uses margarine, which possesses the worst qualities of the previous fats and none of their better qualities. 

gimmee some o' dat
SUGAR

Sugar keeps things sweet and tender. But before you go confusing marriage advice with cookie advice, remember that sugar will brown your cookies and more there is, the more your cookies will spread.

• White table sugar makes cookies hard and crisp.
• Brown sugar keeps cookies soft because the additional ingredients are hydroscopic and pull moisture from the air around it. They also have a little extra moisture that can increase the spread of the cookie.
• Corn syrup has even more moisture than brown sugar, and will not only increase the spread, but also make a cookie browner and the surface of a cookie crisper.  

wild
FLOUR

Flour seems unassuming enough, but the protein it carries can be a powerful tool -- for good or evil.

• The protein in bread flour browns in the oven and quickly soaks up water, causing a cookie to be dry and crisp. Gluten forms more readily in high protein flour, which lends to a chewier cookie -- just make sure the liquid gets to the flour before the fat does.
• Cake flour, which is low-protein, makes for light-colored, tender, puffy (cake-like) cookies.
• And your average all-purpose flour has properties that lay somewhere in the middle.

stairway to
LEAVEN

The difference between baking powder and baking soda is this: like your classic 70's hippie, baking powder packs its own acid. The resulting acidic dough bakes faster and spreads less. Typically 1 tsp of baking powder is needed for each cup of flour...which might be why baking soda is often used: only 1/4 tsp of baking soda is needed for each cup of flour. The less-acidic dough made with baking soda not only spreads a little more, it helps to brown the cookie.

a little, lovely 
LIQUID

Gotta have liquid in a cookie. Unless you're baking hockey pucks. A tablespoon of liquid -- milk, water, egg -- is often all the moisture that is needed for the steam needed to puff the cookie up a bit. Eggs hold a cookie together, but the white dry a cookie out.

 And so here it is, the Magical Cookie Tweaking Tips

For Flatter Cookies:

• use all butter
• use high protein flour
• add 1-2 Tbsp water or milk
• add 1-2 Tbsp sugar
• bake room temperature dough
• bake at 325 for a longer time

For Puffier Cookies:

• use all shortening, or substitute part of the butter for shortening
• use one egg for the liquid in the recipe -- reduce egg to one if recipe calls for more than one
• cut sugar by 2-4 Tablespoons
• use baking powder instead of baking soda
• bake chilled dough
• bake at 375 for a shorter time

For more Tender cookies:

• use cake flour
• add 2-4 Tbsp sugar
• add 2-4 Tbsp fat

For Chewier Cookies:

• use bread flour
• use more brown sugar than white sugar
• form gluten by mixing 1 Tbsp of water or milk with flour before adding to fat (if using butter, melt the butter and mix it with the flour long enough for gluten to form)

For Crispier Cookies:

• substitute 1-2 Tbsp of sugar with corn syrup
• use high protein flour
• increase ratio of white to brown sugar