Great cookie post by Helen....

she is wonderful (more)

recently she sent an email to every subscriber apologizing for a mistake in a recipe

it was so sweet and thoughtful!

 
Yes, I read that email too. Her heart is in the right place and on top of

being a conscientious person she's a passionate baker who stretches herself and her time to share her craft with others. We are so blessed.

 
great info - I'll have to try using bread flour! also

So that my cookies don't spread too much while baking, this is what I do:

1) put a piece of wax paper over a dinner plate (or two)
2) using a scoop, place a scoop of cookie in the center of the plate. Then I add the scoops around the center cookie (basically creating larger and larger rings of cookies
3) refrigerate the cookies for at least 1 hour prior to baking.
4) Preheat the oven. Once preheated - I drop the cookies onto a baking sheet and in the oven they go.

 
Ditto. Having done pastry

professionally myself a number of years ago, I can appreciate the detail Helen Fletcher goes into. I will say though, I don't always agree with some things, for instance, the use of shortening in cookies. While I completely understand her reason for using it, I personally prefer not to as I really don't care for the mouthfeel of most products containing shortening. Shortening doesn't melt well with our body temperature and leaves an unpleasant mouthfeel. In addition, it lacks the nice flavor that butter contributes. So I tend to prefer all butter in cookies and just "live with the spread" so to speak. smileys/wink.gif.

 
I wish to give credit to E in SF...

(many of you will remember Elaine from the old swap), for teaching me about the use of shortening in pastry items. She's the one who taught me about the mouthfeel of shortening and how it doesn't melt with our body temperature, when I worked with her as her pastry cook at the restaurant in Berkeley. Elaine was a joy to work with and taught me SOOO much about baking and pastry. While I learned a lot in patisserie classes at culinary school, Elaine helped me take it all to another level.

 
Jacques Torres seemed to start the *bread flour* idea. Lots of debate

around this cookie that the combination of the lower protein level in pastry flour PLUS the higher protein level in bread flour just about equals the protein level in all-purpose.

So...why bother?

But the recipe said to...so I did.

It's another good one to add to my collection of 41,376,881 chocolate chip cookie recipes. Of course, the guy is a candy maker and so his chocolate add-ins are top-notch. Stopped in his DUMBO Brooklyn store with Sandra and her friend Heidi (my NYC Guide For the Day). Great treat (amazing sample of the shop's hot chocolate which was like liquid chocolate), but the French bakery across the street was almost better.

http://www.thecrepesofwrath.com/2011/06/29/infamous-jacques-torres-chocolate-chip-cookies/

 
huh, I just read the blog version of the recipe and she used CAKE flour, not PASTRY

flour. I didn't think they were the same.

Damn. Now this is gonna bug me.

 
I made 19 dozen of these for our pastor's conference...they are TRULY amazing

I also tested...baking some straight away, chilling 24 hours, chilling 48 hours. You MUST let them sit at least 24 hours to develop that "butterscotchiness" the brown sugar imparts.

 
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