Friday, March 15, 2013

American chocolate chip cookie / cookie aux pépites de chocolat

Ok, so let's get this started. I've been thinking about this blog (was supposed to be a book!) for about 3 years now. And since it's finally floating out in the blogosphere, and there have been a dozen hits over the past two days, it means someone is either interested in what I have to say or the search engines accidentally landed on my blog while looking for "how to French kiss" or "flat buns".

The story of American recipes adapted to France all started with the tollhouse chocolate chip cookie that I wrote about back in 2007 (ugh!). I just couldn't figure out why the foolproof black on white and yellow tollhouse recipe wouldn't work. After years of perfect cookies, suddenly they were flat and greasy.

So through lots of trial and many dozen over-baked and flat cookies, I found four little tricks:
  1. extra flour
  2. cold cookie dough
  3. short baking time
  4. patience...
I've found that the best chocolate chip cookies happen when you are patient which is really hard for me. If you decide to use the tollhouse recipe, add an extra 1/4 cup of plain flour to the recipe or replace a 1/4 cup of plain flour with whole wheat flour. It will balance out some of the extra fat in the butter (since French butter has a higher fat content that American butter).

Here is my adapted version of the traditional Tollhouse recipe found on the back of Nestlé semi-sweet morsels. I also cut the sugar because French people tend to find the original recipe too sweet. The recipes follows in French.

Chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients:
  • 2 1/2 cups (350) all-purpose flour (or 2 1/4 cups plain flour plus 1/4 cup whole wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
  • 1 cup (225 g) salted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup (90 g) granulated sugar (such as sucre roux)
  • 3/4 cup (150 g) packed brown sugar (such as sucre graeffe)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (250 g) chocolate chips (or chopped 64% chocolate)
  • 1 cup  (100 g)chopped nuts (VERY OPTIONAL - I HATE nuts in my cookies)
  • a dash of cinnamon (optional but delicious!)
Method:
Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix well until smooth. Place the dough in the refrigerator for a good hour or more. Form balls of cookie using 2 teaspoons. Make nice round balls, flatten them a little with the back of a spoon and place in the oven.
Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 8 minutes or a bit longer for crunchier cookies.
Recipe makes about 5 dozen depending on how much raw cookie dough you eat.

Cookies aux pépites de chocolat
Ingrédients:
350 g de farine tout usage (ou 2 1/4 tasses de farine ordinaire, plus 1/4 tasse de blé entier)
• 1 cuillère à café de bicarbonate de soude
• 1 cuillère à café de sel de mer (en option)
• 250 g beurre salé, ramolli
90 g sucre (tels que sucre roux)
150 g vergeoise  (comme sucre Graeffe)
• 1 cuillère à café d'extrait de vanille
• 2 gros œufs
 • 250 g pépites de chocolat (ou 64%)
• 100 g noix hachées (TRÈS EN OPTION - Je DÉTESTE noix dans mes cookies)
une pincée de cannelle (facultatif mais délicieux!)

Méthode:

Battre le beurre et les sucres dans un grand bol. Ajouter les oeufs et la vanille. Bien méanger. Ajouter les ingrédients secs et bien mélanger jusqu'à consistance lisse. Placer la pâte au réfrigérateur pendant une bonne heure ou plus. Former des boules de pâte  à cookies à l'aide de 2 cuillères à café. Faire des boules rondes, aplatissez-les un peu et mettre au four.

Cuire au four à 375 ° F (190 ° C) pendant 8 minutes.
Selon la quantité de pâte crue que vous mangez, cette recette fait 5 douzaines de cookies .



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, which type of flour do you use. I find the flours here so tricky. thanks!

Reb said...

Thanks for your comment. I use T65 flour because quite simply that's the one I find at my local Carrefour (I use organic). I have tried T55 also but it tends to be lighter so you need to add a bit extra. You can also mix T55 and whole wheat. click on the tab at the top of the blog "american ingredients in France". You'll find my suggestions and also a link to David Lebovitz's information about American baking in France. Bon app'!