Cookiesitting Results! (Or, Perfecting Perfection III)

Full disclosure time:

1. Jon and I ate half of the raw dough in Batch 1. (Who wouldn't have!?)
2. A more scientific test would have used full recipes, not 1/4 recipes.
3. In practically every picture, I'm wearing the same blue T-shirt.

As you might remember, our criteria were texture, flavor, and appearance.

Batch 1 (aged for 2 days): The driest of the three batches. Had a nice nutty flavor the other batches didn't have. Looked kind of Chips Ahoy-ish.

Batch 2 (aged for 1 day): A really nice texture--nice and chewy. Just the the right amount of sweetness, and the vanilla flavor was more pronounced here than in the other batches. Nicely browned, with a really homemade-looking craggy exterior.

Batch 3 (fresh, not aged): Soft interior, crisper exterior. Nice taste but noticeably less "forceful" than the other batches. Lighter in color than the other batches and not as flat.

As Jon told me last night, cookies from all three batches are bring-in-able. (In fact, he did bring them in to work this morning.) But the winner is...Batch 2!

We both felt that Batch 2, which had aged for a day in the refrigerator before baking, had the best texture, flavor, and appearance. I liked the nuttiness of Batch 1, but the cookies were a little dry for me. Batch 3 was good overall, but the cookies just lacked that little something that Batch 2 had.

Hmm... It turns out there is something to that whole line about letting cookie dough age. I'm going to add this advice to my Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies recipe.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in to my Adventures in Chocolate Chip Cookiesitting project!

Comments

[Lorraine]

Thanks for doing this experiment!! We'll all benefit from the results. I have the lavender extract for you and I'll either mail it or hand deliver.

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Thanks, Lorraine. Maybe we'll see you this weekend.

[Princess Ariele]

Number two was by far the best!
We ate all of them!

[Kim]

Agreed. Batch #2 was clearly superior, though the others had their merits as well. Batch #3 is best if you like a crispier outside, which I can sometimes be in the mood for. Great idea for an experiment, though, and thanks for brightening up our work day by letting us participate!

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Princess Ariele. Thanks! I'm still going to do the salt-top chocolate cookies for you...I promise.

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Kim. It was my pleasure! At first, I didn't think that aging the dough would make as big a difference as it did. I stand corrected!

[The City Sage]

Finally! Scientific data on the aging process of oatmeal cookie dough! I've been preaching the overnight in the fridge to my baking buddies for years, and I'm so glad to have an authoritative resource to refer them too!

Sometimes, though, you just want an oatmeal cookie ASAP, and you don't have time to let the dough sit. In those emergency situations, I find that if you mix up all the wet ingredients and add the oats, then let it sit for about 20 min, THEN add the flour, you can get some of that day-old dough moistness...

my fave recipe is here:http://www.annesage.com/blog/2008/08/and-dont-forget.html

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Thanks, City Sage. That sounds like a good trick to shortcut the aging process. Leave it to Martha!

[Calabaza-azul]

I have a question! I hope you can help me with this. When you refrigerate the dough for 24 hrs, you let it to be at room temperature and then you bake the cookies.. or just bake them straight out of the refrigerator? :)

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Calabaza. I scooped and baked the cookies directly from the fridge. The dough for the later batches was closer to room temperature. Hope this helps!