The Chocolate Chip Cookie Project: Part VII
Subject #7: Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
I feel almost ashamed posting about these. This is serious oh-no-she-didn’t territory. For one thing, I’m not even sure if this mix is still available in Estonia, as I bought it during a theme month at the Stockmann department store a while ago. I bought it so long ago, as a matter of fact, that the mix was expired. Seriously, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I guess I still wanted to make them because I hate throwing food away, I was feeling rather lazy, and I wanted to see whether cookies from a mix were still as good as I thought they were when I was a kid.
I figured the powdered mix itself would still be fine since it’s filled with preservatives, but guessed that the chocolate chips might be a little bloomed. I was right. The chips looked a bit gray. The main ingredients in the chips were sugar, chocolate liquor, and cocoa butter– I’m not sure if that makes them real chocolate or not. The mix itself smelled almost like powdery peanut butter. I added some softened butter and one egg. I toyed with the idea of sprinkling sea salt on top of the cookies, like I do with my favorite cookies, but the dough already tasted quite salty, so I decided to skip it.
They didn’t look too bad when they came out. Golden brown edges, a little bit of height, bumpy tops. The chocolate chips no longer looked gray.
The taste? Flat. Despite the dough tasting salty, the cookies themselves were very sweet– the sea salt topping actually would’ve paid off. The chocolate chips had a nice texture but are nothing exceptional. The brown edges had a nice crispy texture, but once again kind of flat– almost like toast. And the centers, soft but not chewy, and also sort of bread-like.
So… yeah. The cookies aren’t terrible, but I understand that I’ve come to expect more from chocolate chip cookies. Big chocolate chunks, a satisfying chew, the deep taste of slightly caramelized brown sugar, the contrast from a healthy dose of salt. And of course, I like knowing what goes into my food, too. Now that I am 100% sure that I can make cookies that are way better than this, I think my cookie mix-buying days are definitely over.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie Project: Part VI
Subject #6: Pagaripoisid Cookies
I was excited to find these cookies in the Kaubamaja grocery store last month because they’re actually made in Estonia, right here in Tallinn. All the other cookies I’ve sampled (other than the ones I’ve made, of course) were packaged products made elsewhere. I love that the name of the product is still “Cookies”, in English (which goes to show that chocolate chip is clearly THE quintessential cookie). These cookies had an expiration date of one month from the day I bought them, so I can only hope that these were fresh, made that day or the day before.
There were two cookies in the plastic container. The cookies are round domes, with none of the cragginess I love on chocolate chip cookies. Still, I had hope that maybe the fresh cookies would have a slightly chewy interior, or at least, you know, something good about them.
Yeah… not so much. Both the texture and taste of the cookie is chalky and floury, completely plain, with no buttery or caramelized flavors at all. The chocolate bits, which aren’t even real chocolate (ingredients: sugar, vegetable oil, cocoa (17%), soy lecithin), are surprisingly crunchy and add some texture and sweetness, but still nothing in the way of richness. Oh well. It’s nice that Pagaripoisid attempted the product, but as far as chocolate chip cookies go, they have a lot to learn.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie Project: Part V
Subject #5: The New York Times chocolate chip cookies
I finally did it! I made the New York Times cookies. Or Jaques Torres cookies, or whatever else you want to call them. Here’s how it went down.
The chocolate: Bars of baking chocolate I bought in Brussels. They’re not exactly top-quality (it’s the house rand of Delhaize, which is a supermarket chain), but still– Belgian chocolate! It must be a litle bit special, right? And the corner of the package declares “Belgian chocolate” (in English) and then “pure cocoa butter” (in French, Dutch and German). Instead of going for uniform chunks when I chopped the bars, I tried to to chop it into longer sticks, hoping it would simulate the layered-chocolate effect had by using the feves or discs recommended by the recipe.
Like Orangette, I used only all-purpose flour instead of the combination of cake and bread flours. I also halved the recipe, since I didn’t have the massive amount of chocolate a full recipe requires on hand. After preparing the dough on Tuesday night, it sat in the fridge until Thursday evening– about 44 hours. After allowing it to soften ever so slightly, I scooped out amounts that were smaller than the recommended 1/3 cup, since I didn’t want such massive cookies. I used a 1/4 cup and didn’t quite fill it all the way, so each cookies was about 1/5 a cup of dough.
Cookies topped with a sprinkling of sea salt, awaiting the oven
The recipe states 15-20 minutes, but mine were looking quite golden brown after only 11 minutes, so I removed them from the oven– I DID NOT want to overbake these babies.
The cookies were beautiful. A lovely craggy golden brown with streaks of chocolate throughout, like bakery cookies that immediately invoke cravings upon visual contact. Despite the shortened baking time, they were perfectly baked, still soft and dense in the middle, but not doughy. And the flavor was truly wonderful. A slight molasses flavor, with the sprinkled sea salt providing a pleasant contrast, distinct but not distracting. I just feel like they taste the way that chocolate chip cookies are supposed to taste, and I was so amazed that I made them. 
Some of the chocolate pieces were quite large, so occasionally a bite would be almost all chocolate and no cookie, but I still liked the effect of the longer pieces and will attempt to chop chocolate like that in the future, when appropriate.
So the moral of the story is bake these cookies. And if you want to read more about them, you can check out some of the bajillion other people who have blogged about these cookies.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie Project: Part IV
Subject #4: Rainbow Cookies
I found these cookies from Prisma, a grocery store we started visiting recently because the selection is better than that of Selver, which is our old standby. The brand name is Rainbow and the product is simply called Cookies. They are made in Germany. On the Estonian label, the product was called šokolaadiküpsised, which I would actually translate as “chocolate cookies”. Oh well. The packaging also claims that the cookies are 40% milk and dark chocolate chips!
Opening the package, I was immediately hit by an intense chocolate aroma. The cookies are crunchy and thick. They sort of remind me of classic Chips Ahoys, but these are slightly thicker, and they appear to contain more chips as well.
These cookies are actually good! They defintely pack in a good amount of chocolate, and the surrounding cookie, while crunchy, isn’t too dry. I think warming up one of these in the microwave on a damp paper towel would yield excellent results. The only problem I have is that the cookie lacks any kind of buttery flavor. But if I want cookies with real butter, I can make them myself– for a mass-produced store variety, these are pretty good. I’d buy them again.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie Project: Part III
Subject #3: Jyvashyvät Suklaapisara
No, I haven’t forgotten about the cookies, though I haven’t written about them in a while! And I definitely plan on making my own cookies following the recipe published by the New York Times during the summer, which advises that cookie dough be refrigerated for 36 hours before baking so that the flavor can develop. I was waiting to get a box shipped from Brussels that had some Belgian chocolate in it that I’d bought for baking. The box has now arrived, so it’s only a matter of time before I make these ultimate cookies.
Until then, I’ll continue to try other varieties. These are Jyvashyvät Suklaapisara, made in Finland but available in Estonia. They’re thin biscuits with dark chocolate pieces (hõrk šokolaad, or tasty chocolate, as the package claims). I know theoretically the words “biscuit” and “cookie” are equivalent, one British and one American, but I tend to think of biscuits as more thin, simple, and dry, and something big, soft or chewy is definitely a cookie. So anyway, to me, these are biscuits. I wasn’t expecting very much from them, but actually, I was pleasantly surprised. The product in the package looks exactly like the images on the outside. The cookie itself is fairly thin with a nice, slightly buttery flavor, and you can actually taste the chocolate pieces. It’s no replacement for a soft, warm cookie, but if you’re just craving something wheat-based with a hint of chocolate, it can satisfy. It’s also a good vehicle for a smear of peanut butter, and I imagine Nutella would be excellent on them too.
