this episode is sponsored by rocket
mortgage i've made a lot of meals in
apartment kitchens over the years but
thanks to you guys watching along at
home i've been able to buy the place of
my dreams
and that includes this awesome studio
kitchen like any big change there's
always a few steps you need to take to
set things in motion
i chatted about my path to this point on
rocket mortgages new show
big change and you can check it out at
the link in the video description let's
get down to basics
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all right so the first thing cookies
need is a dough so we're gonna make a
sort of master dough one that with a bit
of tweaking
should be able to yield four different
kinds of cookies or biscuits as they are
sometimes incorrectly called i'm just
kidding
just kidding first things first in most
cookie contexts you're going to get a
lot of mileage out of browning your
butter you can do this by cooking your
butter over medium heat stirring
constantly for about five minutes until
the milk proteins separate into little
bits and begin to turn a lovely toasty
brown
at this point to prevent it from burning
we want to get it out of the hot pan
right away and just to be safe you could
throw a couple ice cubes in there if you
want then you're going to want to cover
it and let it solidify overnight in the
fridge
for this recipe it's imperative that
every element of the cookie dough is as
cold as possible
and since butter gets rather sturdy when
it's cold really the only way to make
this recipe
is with a stand mixer or a very powerful
hand mixer we're starting with eight
ounces of unsalted butter six and a half
ounces if you browned it beforehand
because it tends to lose moisture in the
cooking process
we're gonna soften it up a little bit
with the paddle attachment of our stand
mixer before adding
four and a half ounces of granulated
sugar and nine and three quarter ounces
of light brown sugar then we're creaming
those together on high speed for about
three minutes until the mixture becomes
light and fluffy
scrape off the paddle and down the sides
of the bowl and then we can get to
adding our eggs
two large eggs added one at a time while
the mixer is running on medium speed
making sure that each egg is fully
incorporated before adding the next
scrape down the paddle in the sides of
the bowl once again and then it's time
to introduce our dry ingredients to the
party in a separate bowl we are
combining 11 and a half ounces of
all-purpose flour a tablespoon of kosher
salt and a half teaspoon of baking soda
tiny whisk until thoroughly combined
dump it in the stand mixer and mix
until just mixed that is the flour is
fully hydrated and no
dry patches remain and there you have it
our base basic
baseline aldo and no cookie cookie dough
and this is where we begin chapter 1
of your choose your own adventure cookie
novel
sure this would be perfect for good
old-fashioned chocolate chip and walnut
but why not start things off by going a
little crazy
here i've got some of the kettle corn
from earlier this week which i'm going
to chop up into even more bite-sized
bite-sized pieces
toss them in there with i don't know how
about some nice chopped up pretzels
just kind of eyeballing all this along
with a handful of butterscotch chips
maybe
a spirited spranklin of m m's and what
the hell i'm feeling frisky how about
some chopped up bite-sized butterfingers
really you can put anything you want in
here but at the end of the day you want
to add about 12 ounces of toppings all
told
massage those toppings into the dough as
minimally as possible you don't want to
build up gluten and end up with tough
cookies
then cover and refrigerate for at least
one hour and up to three days
in fact the longer the better three days
in the fridge is going to help sort of
dry age your cookie dough and give it
some really subtle delicious flavor as
you can see i'm doling them out using a
small ice cream scoop onto a parchment
lined baking sheet and baking on the
middle rack at 375 degrees fahrenheit
for 18 to 20 minutes
rotating halfway through baking and
really starting to check after like 15
minutes
no two ovens are alike and this might
take a couple batches to get perfect
once you've let these cool
on the tray for about five minutes and
are able to rotate them freely without
them falling apart transfer them onto a
wire rack where you can allow them to
cool completely
if you can control yourself in the
meantime why don't we try a slightly
more elegant combination
i got four ounces of macadamia nuts that
i'm gonna toast at 375
for 5-10 minutes until they're just
starting to become
toasty let those cool completely before
chopping them up and adding them to your
base batter then i'm generally
not such a big fan of white chocolate
but it works beautifully in this recipe
i got four ounces worth that i'm gonna
chop up into bite-size pieces
then i got myself two ounces of dried
unsweetened cranberries and two ounces
of dried
sweetened coconut get that all mashed up
in there make sure to refrigerate
completely before baking at least one
hour ideally up to three days
then scoop out and bake as before 375
for 18 to 20 minutes
middle rack rotating halfway through and
letting cool for about five minutes on
the sheet tray until you can twist them
freely without breaking them then go
ahead and transfer them to a wire rack
and there you have it white chocolate
macadamia nut cranberry coconut cookies
now you might be saying to yourself babs
where's the chocolate well i got your
chocolate right here we're going to
prepare our dough the exact same way up
to the point of adding the dry
ingredients
then we're subbing four ounces of the
flour for high quality dutch processed
cocoa powder so that's seven and a half
ounces of all-purpose four ounces of
cocoa powder and the same old half
teaspoon of baking soda and tablespoon
of salt we're also going to add one
teaspoon of instant espresso powder this
isn't enough to make it taste like
coffee it's just gonna make it extra
chocolatey tiny whisk until homogeneous
and then carry on as before add the dry
stuff mix on medium low until just
incorporated and there you have it a
single tweak
rich chocolate version of our cookie
dough now what it needs is some
delicious fillings how about a coffee
toffee cookie or as
jess likes to call it the portmanteau
first we're gonna add 12 chopped up
ounces of your favorite chocolate
covered toffee bar
and an additional one to two teaspoons
of that instant espresso powder this
will make it taste a little like coffee
mix everybody up cover fridge and bake
as before
now chocolate cookies are a little bit
more challenging because due to their
color it's harder to tell when they're
done
in fact you might want to make a batch
of their blondie brethren before even
attempting these so you know how your
oven behaves and when to pull the damn
things out same deal let them cool in
the pan for about five minutes until you
can twist them without breaking them
apart
transfer to a rack and let cool
completely if you can and now you might
be saying babs that's still not
enough chocolate for me well then folks
i think it's time that we went all the
way
triple chocolate six ounces of high
quality chocolate chips and six ounces
of freshly chopped high quality
chocolate into a batch of chocolate
cookie dough and maybe
think about chocolate while you're
mixing it all together cover fridge
bake batch batish there you have it
folks the very chocolatiest cookies in
all the land
we've talked a lot about how these
cookies are made but how do they look
feel and taste well they've got a
lightly crunchy exterior and a
dense chewy interior they're well
proportioned and filled with delicious
stuff
and just a picture-perfect portrait of
everything i love most about cookies
and we've managed to make four different
kinds of cookies with pretty much the
same base
dough they're best eaten within two days
and freeze beautifully if you didn't
even keep them that long i know it
sounds like a joke but it's not these
barely lasted 48 hours
thanks again to rocket mortgage for
sponsoring this episode like i mentioned
earlier i was part of their new show on
youtube called
big change where i talk about the crazy
journey it's been from making this show
in a number of different kitchens to now
where i get to work in this studio every
day
and that's thanks to you guys head to
the link in the video description to
watch the episode on
the rocket learn youtube channel
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you