Comments on Dreamwidth. Toll House Cookies with M&M's

[cimorene]

Dreamwidth
I want to consolidate comments, like so many oppressor-people now making Dreamwidth their main center of operations. That means comments will be turned off on my posts at livejournal. Livejournal users can comment using their lj identity via OpenID (validate your OpenID email and get a million dollars some icon slots!). Account creation invite codes are pretty plentiful if you're involved in fandom social networks and accounts can also be bought with PayPal (currently, only if you have a PayPal account, but they're working on that).

Finnish carnivals, foods, revised cookie recipe
Yesterday was Vappen aka Vappu aka Valborgsafton aka Walpurgisnacht (if you go for German), the old pagan springtiemz holiday. As you've probably noticed today is May 1. Finland's mode of celebration involves public drunkenness and wearing white hats (on Vappen) followed by picnics on May Day. (It used to involve bonfires, but I guess we're a little too urban for that these days.) All we did yesterday, actually, was brave the huge hordes downtown to buy groceries and then come home and cook dinner, but my fusilli and mushrooms and broccoli in pesto sauce was a raging success. Also, I performed a social experiment by making my

Cim's minorly-adjusted Toll House Cookies, in metric measures
These cookies are widely acclaimed by basically anyone I feed them to as the greatest cookies they've ever tasted. I don't claim that this involves anything special - it's not a mystery why they taste good, since they're made almost completely of butter and sugar, with a hint of vanilla and salt, and garnished with CHOCOLATE. Nonetheless, there's a certain alchemy (or you know, chemistry, if you want to be mundane) involved in THCs that really is tastier than any other cookie I've ever had, so.

• 200 g softened salted margarine or butter. Don't use all of it - more like, oh, 185g, or, if you're working from a 600g block, shave off the last quarter cm or so from the end


• 2 eggs


• 1.8 dL brown sugar


• 1.8 dL granulated white sugar


• about 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon liquid vanilla extract) - it's vitally important that you use genuine vanilla extract and not artificial/vanillin


• 6 dL all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon salt (fine cooking salt ideally)


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• [400 grams semi-sweet chocolate if you can't get hold of]400g plain M&M's

Preheat the oven to 190° or 200°C.

Soften the butter but don't melt it entirely liquid. (I use the microwave on defrost, with the butter in chunks in a bowl, for two turns at 1 min each.) Scrape it into a bowl and beat it with an electric mixer until it's smooth. Then add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla sugar and beat until smooth (unless your vanilla sugar is powdered and not granulated, in which case, you can add it with the dry ingredients instead). Add the salt and baking soda to the flour in a separate container and mix well, or sift it together. Then add it gradually to the batter while beating. Add the chocolate (chopped) or M&M's and mixgently into the dough (ie, not with the beater).

Use a teaspoon (or tablespoon if desired) to measure the dough blobs onto the baking sheets, 9-12 per sheet, not too close together (leave 3-5 cm/2 in or so in between - that should keep them separate if the dough behaves as usual). Bake for 5-8 minutes, checking carefully (check after 5 if they're small, but they generally take at least 6), until risen and darkened to golden brown on the edges but still pale and puffy in the center. (When they deflate again, or turn completely brown, that's bad. But if you take them out before the gold moves in from the edges, they'll fall when they cool because of not being completely cooked in the middle.) If you re-use the baking sheets, don't put the cookies on hot sheets - it makes them melt prematurely - but cool the sheets under cold running water before putting the next batch on them.

THCs with M&M's instead of chocolate chips are preferred in our household, but they are slightly sweeter and won't be for everyone.

by the actual teaspoon (like the original recipe said) and not by the tablespoon, 12 vs. 9 to a baking sheet, and although I nearly burned a couple of trays, the ones that came out perfect were a definite improvement.

Comments

[kmazzy]

why is the recipe 200g butter but don't use all of it? i don't get it. can't you just say 185g butter?

[cimorene]

Because 200mg is what the recipe actually calls for, and I don't measure it exactly.