Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Nestle: 3 Marisa: 0


I have begun a war with the Nestle chocolate chip cookie recipe and so far I am losing…badly. I am quite fond of the Nestle chocolate chips as a more affordable chocolate chip for my cookies so that is usually what I buy. Conveniently on the back of the package there is a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Originally I got sucked into trying this recipe because the pictures associated with Nestle chocolate chips always look so good! I figured if the package recipe could make kind of cookies I had seen then I definitely want to try it. So I gave it a go.

Round 1: I follow the recipe instructions, but I am on the phone with my mom and may or may not have given the recipe the full attention it needed. Nevertheless, all seemed to be fine until I pulled the first dozen out of the oven.

Instead of beautiful plump chocolate cookies I opened the oven to find a cookie sheet filled with practically see through cookie dough and chocolate chips scattered throughout. I unfortunately had already mixed in the chocolate chips to the entire batch so I was done for. I turned the rest of the dough into a huge cookie sheet sized cookie that was gross and disgusting and I threw most of it away once Danny had forgotten about them.

Round 2: I wised up and read the entire package directions and realized that there was a “High Altitude” variation on the recipe so I figured that would be my ticket to beautiful package looking cookies! I followed the recipe to the “T” and made the adjustments for high altitude. I placed the cookies in the oven with high hopes for the perfect cookie only to find a slightly less running cookie than I had the time before.

Round 3: Well I am no dummy. I learned my lesson the first time and only added chocolate chips to a small portion of the dough in just such a case that I needed to give the dough some further tweaking. I added ¼ c. of flour one at a time until I felt the consistency of the dough was such that it would hold a better shape.

Again the cookies went into the oven and a few short 8 minutes later what did I find? That the cookies had kept their shape… the exact shape of the cookie scoop! The cookies barely moved from the position that I put them in prior to baking. I had over floured. Needless to say the cookies were a bit dense. At least this time the cookies were a little more edible.

I finished baking the remaining dough, turned off the oven and left the kitchen defeated once again by the Nestle recipe. I haven’t determined quite yet if I am going to bow out peacefully or if I will return for a round 4 and maybe…just maybe obtain a possible victory over the Nestle cookie recipe.

5 comments:

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  2. I think that the recipes on the boxes are just a gimmick.

    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Big-Fat-Chewy-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie/Detail.aspx

    If you find a recipe with thousands of reviews and it is still 4.5 stars and read the few top rated reviews for helpful hints, you'll be bound to make epic cookies on the first try (unless you add both ingredients instead of substituting one for the other, like I did with your cookies last week ;)

    Oh, and best apple pie ever... (we've made it 4 times and everyone adores it)

    http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Glazed-Apple-Cream-Pie/Detail.aspx

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  3. That is so frustrating! I have a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that is GREAT. If you want to try it let me know. :)

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  4. You don't know me, but I used to work with Danny at the Writing Center. I have some advice for you, though! That is my mom's famous cookie recipe (same one as Ghiradelli and Guittard, actually) with one important change. You have to use butter-flavored crisco instead of butter. They will turn out perfect and light instead of flat and brown. I don't know how high in altitude you are, but you might have to add 2 T. more flour. Also, make sure to cream the crisco and sugars and then eggs together for a couple minutes before adding the dry ingredients. They turn light and shiny when they're done. Mix all the dry ingredients separately and add them in gradually. Bake at 375 for 8-10 min. They are great the day you make them, but I still can't get them to taste good the second day, so I bake a few at a time and keep the dough in the fridge. Better luck on the fourth try!

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