Cookie Textures

My first order of business is cookie texture.  Being a habitual substituter in the kitchen, my standard cookie recipe can come out crumbly, chewy, biscuit-y or flat and I have no way of guessing the outcome.  So I did a little research, bought a few tools and assembled everything for a photo op.

This is everything I thought I could possibly need, minus salt and bowls.

Mixing the Dough

Rather than starting with my signature chocolate chip cookie, I sought a cookie base that I could then learn to manipulate.    The control cookie consists of:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar (granulated or powdered; I chose granulated)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

Since my favorite cookie uses half white flour and half oat flour, I decided that flour textures would be tonight's experimentation subject.  As a wild card, I also chose to try a cookie with steel cut oats.  I don't know much about them, but they should create a heartier texture.

To create an oat flour, just blend your existing oatmeal.  I like to use my immersion blender instead of a traditional blender because oats stick to the sides of the carafe.  I usually blend an entire container of oatmeal at once, because I know I'll use it, but you can just blend up what you need.

Clockwise from top: sifted white flour, steel cut oats and blended oat flour

Blend sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, then add eggs and vanilla.  If you have a hand blender, I recommend it for this step.

Then add flour and baking powder.  This should be the final product, but notice the total difference in dough textures.

I immediately realized that the cookies would not all be awesome, but I needed to see what the finished product would be before I made any adjustments to the dough.  I baked two of each at 375 for 12 minutes, and the husband and I sat to nibble.
*Note: this dough should be refrigerated overnight, but I was short on time.  I refrigerated it over dinner, about 1 hour.

L-R: steel oat, control, oat flour

The control cookie was perfectly textured, pale, crumbly and bland.  It would need to be flavored, and would probably be great for cookie cutters.  I might pull this out for a sugar cookie or peanut butter cookie in the future.  This time, I'm going to try a bourbon cookie.  Jinger made some last week, and my husband requested a batch.

The blended oat cookie was pretty much perfect, but unimpressive.  It needed pizazz that wouldn't alter the dough.

And the steel oat cookie was delicious, chewy and impossible to remove from the pan without crumbling it into tiny shards.  It would need some very careful adjustments to get it fluffier without totally killing the texture.

Altering the Dough

I started with the control cookie.  After adding 2 tbsps bourbon to the dough, I mixed in 1/2 cup dried blueberries and 1/2 cup dried cherries.  I baked them for 12 minutes, then glazed them with a mixture of 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, 2 tbsp orange liqueur, 1 tbsp milk and a splash of (totally unnecessary) apple juice.  The result was a pretty perfect tea cookie: kind of powdery and white, but delicious.  I might also soak the dried fruit in bourbon instead of adding it to the batter, or even add orange zest, craisins and spice.

glaze and fruited dough

glazed fruited bourbon cookies

Next came the oat flour cookie.  I threw in 12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips and about 1/3 cup white flour to help the dough stick together, then baked for 14 minutes at 375.  The finished product was just okay, but a little dry.  I might add more sugar or another egg next time.  Also, 12 oz was way too much chocolate.  I might reduce it to 6, or even fewer and add some walnuts.

While those were baking, I started work on the steel oat cookie.  I added 1 tbsp honey to make it chewy, and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar as a leavening agent.  I then started adding flour 1/3 cup at a time until the batter had a familiar consistency, for a total of 2 additional cups.  I baked two of them, and they were extremely fluffy.   According to my husband, that was a grievous mistake.

To counteract the fluffiness, I then added an egg to make it denser and 1/3 cup sugar to help them spread.  The final product was much better, but next time, I'll add only 1 extra cup of flour.  I might even use oat flour instead of white.

Stackable cooling racks: I consider these a must-have when baking.

MMMM cookies!

The final verdict came from my office: the bourbon cookie was the resounding favorite.  I'll keep that recipe around and keep tinkering with the other two.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.

<3,
Nutmeg