Dookie Cookie

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STORY

Sometimes you think about the food science behind foods and recipes, and sometimes you get lucky. 

This recipe came about when the wife had a craving for chocolate chip cookies during her first trimester, opened a bag, took a bite of the cookie, and decided that cookies made her feel nauseas. 

This then broke my sugar free streak, as I helped her to finish that cookie, and the rest of the packet. 

Then as any sugar junkie can attest to, this lead me to wanting more cookies, realizing that I had all the ingredients in the house (no brown sugar, but small bag of muscovado for coffee, as well as palm sugar from a vacation souvenir, and raw cane sugar for making 红烧肉 - Soy braised meat). 

And as always with recreating sinful treats at home, I thought about how to make it better than store bought. 

HYPOTHESIS / REASONING

1) Flavor. I want everything. I want nutty and buttery, I want that deep rich smokey flavor and toasty caramelized butterscotch like tasting notes. I want dark bittersweet chocolate/ cocoa flavor. Dammit if I'm gonna eat something sweet, it's gonna be worth it. 

2) Texture. I want a crisp crunchy bite, but also a soft, tender fluffy center. I want that soft gooey melted chocolate texture, but also the bite of nuts. 

3) Convenience. When I want a cookie, I usually don't want to wait more than 10 minutes for it, or put much effort into it. Everything should be prepped and ready for maximum gluttony.

That being said, we try to bake only two or three cookies per person at a time. Even though it only takes 6-8 minutes in my toaster oven per batch, having limited amounts of treats infront of me helps limit the urge to binge. 

TECHNIQUE NOTES

Vanilla Rum. I've got a jar of grade B vanilla soaking in some decent rum (and also a pod in the bottle of drinking rum for a more delicious rum). I've been told a good vanilla essence is better, and I'll need more blind taste tests to verify, but I enjoy having an excuse to buy decent drinking rum. 

Coffee vodka. I soak some ground coffee in vodka for a few days to extract the flavors, then filter. The hint of coffee in the cookies really brings out the chocolate flavors. I'm not sure why this works, but it's pretty intense. 

I don't buy the best vodka, but I drop an activated charcoal tablet in the vodka in the hopes that it will absorb some of the flavors. I'm not sure if this actually does anything though. I also had a batch where I soaked it for a long period of time, and it tastes a little sweet. More trials needed. 

Brown your butter, then whisk it with some ice or ice cold water to cool it down and rehydrate. Then cream it with some sugar to introduce air to it. 

Chop and toast your nuts. I like pecans. This brings their oils to the surface and I feel it makes them crunchier and nuttier. 

Chop some dark chocolate that you enjoy. I chopped up a 85% cocoa dark chocolate bar along with a little dark toblerone (didn't want it too sweet). Mix and match leftover halloween goodies with your dark chocolate. 

Mix unsweetened cocoa powder in with your flour. Extra cocoa flavor. 

Crispy cracks can be encouraged by pulling the cut frozen cookies apart and mashing them back together backwards, so the torn parts face outwards. The edges have a tendency to crisp up better and gives you a good variety of texture. 

Gently folding in the flour prevents over developing gluten, which prevents your cookie from becoming too chewey. 

Resting in the fridge overnight helps the flours break down a little more, and further allow that deep caramelized to develop when baked. 

INGREDIENTS

PREP

0) Optional - Soak vanilla pods in rum perpetually for DIY Vanilla essence, which will last a while until you realize you can ALSO use this an ingredient for your mixed drinks, like rum + vanilla rum + malibu rum + pineapple juice.

0.5) Soak coffee grounds in vodka for a couple of days, filter and bottle coffee vodka for coffee extract. it's probably a bad idea to take a shot of this stuff. 

1) Brown the butter till it smells nutty, but before it burns. 

2) Whisk in an ice cube to cool it down, and rehydrate it. (Can be done ahead of time and kept in the fridge for 2 weeks, but needs to be warmed up again before using). Take the butter off the heat a little while before adding water. 

3) Beat in the sugar, until the butter is creamed and fluffy, this can also be stored, and also needs to be beaten again before using. 

4) Chop and toast your nuts. Keep an eye on them, as they will burn easily. I like my nuts toasty

5) Chop chocolates. I like using 85% cocoa chocolate bars, as the bitter notes complement the sweet cookie flavor. However, I'll also chop leftover chocolate bars and mix them in. Dark Toblerone is great here.  

6) Mix dry ingredients together. 

7) Whisk wet ingredients together until almost smooth (I've never managed to get it completely smooth)

8) Beat in creamed brown butter. Resist the temptation to eat the stuff. It's delicious, but also has raw eggs and has a risk of salmonella. Go take a sip of your drinking rum that you placed a pod of vanilla in when you were making a separate DIY vanilla "extract". 

 

9) Gently fold in the dry ingredients and chopped chocolates / nuts. Don't overwork it, as long as it comes together, that's fine. Don't eat any, as raw flour can have bacteria. Take a sip of rum instead. 

10) Transfer to airtight container and let it rest in your fridge overnight, or up to 2 days. 

11) Roll the cookie dough into logs, and freeze it. I like small cookies, so I make logs of 5cm / 2 inches in diameter. 

COOKING

1) Slice a chunk from the log. I like them around 1cm thick, around 2/5s of an inch. 

1.1) Optional - Rip the cookie in half, then smoosh the smooth sides together, with the gnarly bits facing out. Or make it int the shape of your favourite dookie. Your kids will love it.

2) Bake until the cookies are crisp on the outside, while the insides stay fluffy (Approx internal temperature between 175 and 185°F (79 and 85°C). For my small cookies, this takes 6-8min at max (it claims to be 250°C / 480°F) on my toaster oven. This will be different for you, depending on your oven / cookie size etc. Preheat oven for best results. 

3) Give it a sprinkle of your favourite finishing salt. Some fancy overpriced stuff that you got as a gift. Now's your chance to use it. Then let it rest 5-10 min before serving. The outsides will crisp up, and the insides won't burn your mouth. Serve with icecream for best results. 

Reading notes;

Kenji on cookies

King Arthur on autolysis