Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie vs. my Whole Wheat Chocolate Cherry Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour vs. 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda vs. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder + 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt vs. 3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter vs. 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar vs. 1/3 cup organic cane sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar vs. 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract vs. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs vs. 1 large egg
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels vs. 1 cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips and 1 Trader Joe's dark chocolate bar
1 cup chopped nuts vs. 1/3 cup dried cherries
+ in my recipe, 1+ tablespoon ground flax seed, 1 teaspoon espresso powder
Quite a difference!!
For a simplified look at what I did:
Ingredients
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 dark chocolate bar, roughly chopped
1/3 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
Servings: About 2 dozen
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugars. Add in the egg, vinegar, and vanilla, mix until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder. Slowly mix dry ingredients into butter mixture.
Gently stir in the chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, and dried cherries.
Drop cookie dough by rounded spoonfuls on a cookie sheet (best if lined with a silpat). Bake the cookies for 13-16 minutes or just until lightly browned. Remove from oven and after about two minutes, transfer cookies to a cooling rack.
The look and texture of these cookies is something that I have been trying to achieve for quite some time - and it's a completely wheat cookie? That seems absurd. I don't know what it was that made these so perfectly crisp on the outside, risen to a perfect level, and soft on the inside. Perhaps the addition of vinegar? I read that vinegar is like a super-leavener, pairing well with the characteristically dense wheat flour. I think wheat pastry flour is key as well - it is nowhere near as gritty as a standard whole wheat flour would be.
And then I have to confess. I had some "buttery sticks" in my refrigerator after a baking episode with a vegan friend of mine, and wanted to test them out in baking. So I used 4 T. of the "butter stick" and then 2 T. of real butter - and, well, it seemed to work! However, I can get a little bit of the buttery stick taste in the cookie so I don't think that will be my go-to for this recipe, next time I will try 100% butter and hope that it turns out the same. I also read that the buttery sticks have a higher melting point so the other ingredients in the cookie have a longer time to rise and cook up while in the oven - so this may have contributed to the great shape and texture of the cookie. When I do the butter I'm going to refrigerate the dough for a bit so that the dough starts out at a cooler temperature - we'll see.
With cookies, it's science waiting to be perfected and many, many batches of cookies and spoonfuls of raw dough in between.
A few final notes - I would either add more cherries or remove them altogether. They didn't really stand out - so may have been best soaked in some liquor or port...And the coffee flavoring in the dough was very mild - but that's the point. It's not totally necessary but adds some depth - I may try cinnamon next time - cinnamon is good with nearly everything in my opinion....
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