SC - Shortbread help, please

[Brett and Karen Williams]

> Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 09:01:00 -0700
> From: DUNHAM Patricia R <Patricia.R.DUNHAM at ci.eugene.or.us>
> Subject: Re: SC - Shortbread help, please
> 
> ooh, ooh!  would that be why sometimes my chocolate chip cookies come
> out all raised and solid, instead of really thin and chewy between the
> chips (almost like a soft chewy candy texture), the way I -want- them
> to?  because I'm creaming the sugars and marg. too well, not leaving
> enough little butter lumpettes (sic)? THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for the
> idea!  we've been going nuts the last year or two, never knowing what to
> expect out of the oven, but mostly not getting what we really want!
> 
> Chimene

I don't think this is quite on topic since I'm answering at length about
a non-period cookery item, but nonetheless there's a wee tad of
relevance in there somewhere... :)

Not necessarily. I think the presence of margarine rather than butter
(different chemical structure to the fats), the amount of processing
after the dry ingredients are added combined with the amount of flour
are the culprits for your cookie results.  This is the very recipe I
started cooking with back when I was ten. I've made a *lot* of chocolate
chip cookies and deliberately fooled with variations on the ingredients
and process over the years trying to achieve the Ideal Cookie Texture.

I use unbleached all-purpose flour, straight out of the paper bag. The
manufacturer (General Mills, btw) says that it's pre-sifted. I don't
ever thump down my plastic flour bucket and make the flour settle (kept
tightly sealed against bugges...we are charmingly subject to three kinds
of bug infestations in wheaten/corn dry goods here in southern
California) and I always freeze the bag overnight before dumping it into
the canister. I don't sift again and I will always level off the
measuring cup or measuring spoon with a straight-bladed knife. I've even
mixed in two pounds of spelt flour to my ten pound bucket of standard
unbleached white and made cookies-- and gotten the same texture.

My Ideal chocolate chip cookie Texture is crisp on the outside, tender
and melt-in-the mouth inside. My standard description is 'real butter,
real chocolate, and REAL fattening!" I follow the Toll House recipe on
the outside of the bag.

It's been my experience that if I do a couple of specific things, my
cookies come out consistently with the Ideal Texture.  I have a
KitchenAid Mixmaster (tm) that will cream cold butter easily. I don't
like using really soft butter as it seems to adversely affect the crumb
of the finished cookie. I cream cold- to almost-soft butter, sugars,
vanilla, little bit of water until it's of a consistent texture, then
add two large AA eggs one at a time while the machine's running and mix
some more. 

At his point the color of the batter will start to change as more air is
beaten in. I like the batter to be a very pale cream in color, which
means I turn the machine up to 'whirl like a dervish' and let it run for
a little while. Once parchment color's been achived, I remove the bowl
from the mixer and stir in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and
pinch of salt [which brings out the chocolate flavor in the chips, I
find) with a wooden spoon, using the least amount of strokes possible. I
think that cookie building is similar in theory to good bisquit
handling-- the least amount of stirring and mixing done once the dry
ingredients hit the wet, the more improved the texture in the baked
cookie seems to be. Lastly, I fold in the chips with about three
strokes. 

OBMedCooking: Shortbread building is akin to pastry-making-- you want to
rub the cold butter fats through the flour rather than emulsify soft
butter fats with the other wet ingredients like what's done for a
cookie. The end result of the former leads to an effect akin to a flaky
pastry; the latter is entirely different. See! On topic! ;P The couple
of times I've made shortbread I've used two tableware knives to cut the
butter through the flour until the butter and flour got to the texture
of well- crumbled feta cheese. I didn't use my fingers (which would have
been more efficient) since I didn't want the cold butter to melt or get
soft.

I bake on shiny metal pans, until the cookie is *almost* done-- there's
a very small puddle of raw dough in the very center of the top when I
pull the cookie off the sheet. Then they cool on a rack. Most commercial
chocolate chip cookies of the Mall variety are allowed to cool on metal
pans, which accounts for their greasiness. Bleah. The almost-done cookie
will continue to cook for a little while while it's still hot. I do not
like over-done cookies; black pans will guarantee an overdone lower
surface. Make sure your oven is close to 375 degrees by using a
thermometer rather than just the dial-- I used to cook in a gas oven
that was consistently 30 degrees hotter than what I asked it for. You're
in the Pacific Northwest and have electric appliances, which I think is
easier to fine control than gas.

Initially the cookie will be crisp all the way through, then after a
couple of hours (should they last so long!), they will be crisp on the
outside with a tender center. Both chocolate and cookie melt in the
mouth. Do not store flour and flour-based items (like bread) in the
refrigerator as the temperature of the 'fridge will hasten the starch
structure in the flour to staleness.

It's been my experience that margarine makes a different crumb-- and I
prefer that of butter. The taste is superior, too. ;) Incidentally,
using this same process will provide
melt-in-the-mouth-but-crisp-on-the-outside snickerdoodles, too.

ciorstan
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