Week 3 - Chocolate Chunk + Chip Cookies (Page 34), Double Chocolate Chunk + Chip Cookies (Page 35)

To skip my babble and get to the original Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookie, click here.

To jump to the original Double Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookie, click here.

To jump to my little Chocolate Chunk, Chip and Mini Chip Cookie, click here.

To skip all my babble and get to the conclusion, click here.

To skip to the happy little bonus, click here.

Photo galleries are posted for each recipe at the bottom of their sections.

To hop over to Jenn's post, click here.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to week 3! Yes, we are still on cookies and yes, I still can't bake them. Cookies are my kryptonite. But, that's okay! You know why? Everything's going to be okay because this week we're baking two classics - Chocolate Chip Cookies and Double Chocolate Chip Cookies! And no matter how badly I mess these up, there will be salvageable little pieces of chocolate to pick out of whatever monstrosity I end up baking.

This is the first time I'm making Chocolate Chip Cookies from scratch at home. I didn't realize this until I started measuring the ingredients. I've only baked Pillsbury's premade Chocolate Chip Cookie dough that comes in a little plastic wrapped tube and I have to admit that I love their dough but rarely bake them. I eat the dough from the tube. With a spoon. Sometimes my bare hands. I have no shame. That being said, I am not recommending or condoning it. Eat raw dough at your own risk. I am willing to take the risk.

Anyway, back to the recipe and the book. I wasn't crazy about any of the recipes we've tried from the book so I was hoping this one would cast away some of my doubts. But, really, it's a classic cookie. How bad could it be? It was bad. The first batch at least. And this time I can fully admit that it's not the recipe. It's entirely my fault. Then I tried again without trying too hard and voila! IT WORKED! The first batch of cookies I've baked from scratch that I'm actually proud of!

Explanations below (:

"Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies" - The original recipe

A classic cookie. Keller ups his chocolate cookie recipe game a few ways. First, he adds chocolate chunks in addition to the chocolate chips because "the chunks melt, but the chips don't." Second, he adds molasses in addition to the brown and granulated sugar to add more depth and richness to the flavour.

The steps for making these cookies are almost identical to the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and the TLCs so there wasn't much of a challenge there. Essentially, you cream the butter, add the sugars, add the eggs, add the dry ingredients in two parts, add the inclusions (nuts, seeds or in this case, chocolate chunks and chips), let dough rest for at least 30 minutes in the fridge then shape into balls and bake.

I struggle with knowing when a cookie is ready to come out of the oven. I judged the doneness of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies by watching to see when the middle stopped bubbling. These cookies did not bubble the same way the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies did so I had to give them a little poke in the middle and hope they were done. That being said, I would poke the middle and immediately think they were still raw and leave them in. Big mistake.

My observations:

These cookies look like cookies! The spread isn't as crazy as the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies so they hold their cookie shape but they're still pretty big if you follow his 150g weight for one large cookie.
The cookies took way longer to bake than the suggested time in the book. There's a good chance my timing was off because I overbaked them but I swear I checked at the suggested times and they were still straight up raw so...
The cookies baked with the standard oven setting spread more than the cookies baked with the convection setting.
I left the cookies in round balls without flattening them when I put them in the oven. If I wanted more spread, I could've flattened them a little and they still would've been okay but I was happy with the results so I didn't flatten both standard and convection batches.

Everyone was excited when they learned it was Chocolate Chip Cookie week but when I wasn't happy with my first attempt, I felt a little defeated and embarrassed so didn't want to share them until I got them up to my standards. My fellow guinea pig, H, was the only one to sample this batch with me.

Our conclusions:

The cookies were overbaked - too crispy on the outside and not soft in the middle after cooling down.
Taste was consistent with what a chocolate chip cookie should be. However, the texture didn't match the taste. It was an incongruent experience. Taste - chocolate chip cookie, yes. Texture - chocolate chip cookie, no. Leads one to think, "am I eating a chocolate chip cookie?" -H
Do not overbake. Duh. 🤦‍♀️

Photos of the Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies:

"Double Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies" - The original recipe

A slight variation to the classic cookie. Keller replaces a good portion of the flour with cocoa powder to live up to the "double chocolate" title of this cookie. The rest of the ingredients and the process were the same as the Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies above.

I continued to struggle with not overbaking these cookies and continued to fail. I'll leave it at that.

My observations:

These cookies look more like cookies if you flatten them into 2" diameter rounds. They definitely spread less than the Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies.
I baked these cookies with the convection setting first and it looked less like a cookie than I wanted it to. It didn't spread enough and was too thick. I figured that that the standard setting would help with the spread but to help the cookie spread a bit more, I flattened the cookie a little so it was in a 2" diameter round instead of a ball.
These cookies also took way longer than the time suggested in the book. Again, I believe this is largely due to my overbaking tendencies so I can't fault the book. I would check Jenn's post to see if she had the same problem with baking times.

Again, my fellow guinea pig, H, was the only one to sample yet another overbaked batch with me.

Our conclusions:

The cookies were overbaked - too dense.
The cookies that were flattened into a 2" diameter round instead of a ball had a much more cookie-like appearance whereas the cookies that were baked from balls were abnormally tall and had inconsistent shapes.
The taste was less sweet than the Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookie above and definitely had more of a deep, cocoa-ey flavour with how much cocoa powder is in it. I personally like the Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookie over the Double Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookie.
I overbaked the first batch baked in the convection oven more than the second batch in the standard oven. The convection oven cookies were still technically edible and most would tell me I'm just being hard on myself but I would prefer to break off pieces of the overbaked cookie and pelt my enemies with it than eat it. The standard oven cookies were actually tasty! Not overly sweet and had a good chew. Had I baked them for two minutes less they might've been worthy of sharing.
"It's really chocolatey, like a chocolate explosion in my mouth, like a ganache with the delightfulness of a cookie crumble. If it was warmer and a little softer it would be lovely. You know how ganache is sometimes too...ganachey? This adds a bit of a crumble texture to it. It's good." -H
Again, do not overbake. 🤦‍♀️

Photos of the Double Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies:

Chocolate Chunk, Chip and Mini Chip Cookie - My variation

I felt so defeated after overbaking all four batches of the cookies above (standard and convection setting bakes for both recipes) but there was hope because with each batch, I overbaked them a little less. There were signs of improvement.

Chocolate Chip Cookies seem like such a basic, standard skill for any baker so this recipe was especially important to me. I didn't expect to master it but I wanted to at least be proud of the batch of cookies I made.

I made the Chocolate Chunk and Chip recipe again with a few tweaks:

I started by making a 1.55x batch of the original recipe because I had a little extra butter that I wanted to finish and I figured I'd have more dough to make mistakes with.
I made the cookies smaller - 50g each.
I ran out of chocolate chips so I substituted the remaining weight of chocolate chips with mini chocolate chips - approximately half chocolate chips and half mini chips.
I eyeballed the amount of molasses I used in this round and think it was approximately double the amount in the original recipe.
I didn't refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes before baking - just scooped, rounded them into balls and did not flatten them before baking.
I baked the cookies with two trays in the oven (the top and bottom thirds) instead of just the one tray in the middle.

All of these cookies were baked with the standard oven setting because I liked the spread more with the standard setting than convection.

I sampled these cookies alone at first but after the first bite I quickly shoveled an un-ladylike amount into my mouth because even after they cooled completely, THEY WERE STILL SOFT AND CHEWY! And not the soft and chewy I normally get because I severely underbaked something. They were baked through and I actually managed to pull them out of the oven at the perfect time! Sorry, don't mean to continually pat myself on the back. This is just a very proud moment and milestone in my life 😂

I let the cookies cool then quickly packed them into little baggies so I could share with the people I love because they only deserve good things and these cookies were definitely good things.

H got the first cookie after me, of course, because the poor boy had to sample all the fails just to help me get to the good one. He's a trooper and a keeper. Thank you for eating all my failed monstrosities ❤️ There were also a few other guinea pigs that I was lucky enough to have sample these cookies and I got nothing but positive feedback. Thank you all for the support, love and encouragement!

Our conclusions:

Baked perfectly. Slightly crispy outside and chewy centre even after cooling.
The chunks and chips were noticeable but the mini chips were not. No harm in having them but no need to go out of your way to add them.
The cookies were baked on the top and bottom thirds of my oven then rotated from top to bottom mid-way through baking. The cookies that started on top spread much nicer than the cookies that started on the bottom though both tasted delicious and both had a great texture. The ones that started on the bottom were just a little bit chewier in the middle because they turned out a little thicker.
As with all the cookie recipes I've tried from the Bouchon Bakery book so far, I prefer the smaller cookie size to the larger one. They're easier to handle and snack on, especially for kids (even though the larger cookies give kids the 'wow factor') and they seem to just bake nicer overall.

Photos of the Chocolate Chunk, Chip and Mini Chip Cookie:

Always have to have that cookie stack. This batch in particular deserved a dedicated photo at the end of the post.

TL;DR Conclusion:

Good recipes! Do not overbake!

The Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies were sweet, but not overly sweet. They had a good chew to them and a good texture when baked properly and the two different sizes of chocolate offered a good variation in texture and in flavour for each bite.

The Double Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies were also great! Good for people who like chocolate and who don't want their cookies too sweet. The decent proportion of cocoa powder to flour in this recipe definitely made the cookie live up to its name and help bring down the sweetness a bit while adding depth and richness to the cookie.

The Chocolate Chunk, Chip and Mini Chip Cookies were my favourite but it's unfair because they were the only ones that weren't overbaked. I am sure I like the smaller sized cookies more but I'm going to have to try remaking the large ones to properly judge how good they are in comparison.

Thanks for reading! Hope everyone has an amazing week while we work on week 4!

Oh, just a happy little bonus tidbit: I thought the zoomed in image of the cookie cross-section was really cool. It's actually just an image zoomed in on Lightroom. Completely unintentional but beautiful to me. It's like you can almost feel the texture just by looking at it!