Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Crisp Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

"These are not the chocolate chip cookies you are looking for."
"Look how large I make my cookies!"
Sometimes I just like crisp chocolate chip cookies. This is a variation on my very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (My Favorite CCC Recipe). It leaves out the water and makes crisp cookies similar to the Pepperidge Farms Chesapeake Cookies or Famous Amos Cookies. I almost bought a bag of Nestle Tollhouse Morsels to make these, but I just couldn't do it. I can taste the difference and I wanted to enjoy the cookies if I was going to take the time to bake and photograph them. So, I cut up the Dove Promises, and I am pleased with the results.
As far as the mini size goes, I like being able to just pop a little cookie into my mouth without having to commit to holding onto a larger cookie for a couple of minutes. I'm a lazy cookie snob, I guess. I got the idea to make tiny cookies a loooong time ago, from a woman who came to our house one time to buy a computer or something from my computer salesman dad. I don't remember the exact circumstances because I was in high school, but I remember that the woman was of Indian descent and she brought over these teeny tiny chocolate chip cookies that were about as big around as a dime. Each cookie only had about two chips. Seriously, two chocolate chips per cookie. I kind of felt bad for the woman thinking she didn't understand how to make American chocolate chip cookies. Then I tasted the cookies and realized what a genius this gentle Indian cookie-baking woman was. I then went through an ity bitty cookie phase, which I had forgotten about until this week. 
Since I don't have the patience any more to make cookies the size of a dime, I enlarged mine to about the size of a quarter. Still plenty small, and still plenty delicious. Give 'em a try.




Crisp Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
     --adapted from Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur


Ingredients 

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup Crisco
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ¾ cup brown sugar 
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¾ tsp baking soda
  • 2 ½ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 bag Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, unwrapped & cut into ¼-inch chunks
  • 1 ½ cups chopped lightly toasted pecans (optional)
Instructions
1. Cream butter, Crisco, egg, & vanilla in a medium size bowl. (This will take a little while for the wet ingredients to emulsify.)
2. In a large bowl, stir together with a whisk the sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour.

3. Combine moist mixture with dry mixture just until it comes together (do not over mix).  Dough will be crumbly.  Add the chocolate chunks and pecans. Refrigerate dough two hours or over night.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Use a half-teaspoon measuring spoon to make tiny dough balls and place them three-quarters to one inch apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  
5. Bake 8-11 minutes, or until puffed and light brown around the edges.

Makes a lot of mini cookies.  I haven't counted.



See what I mean about crumbly dough?
My trusty IKEA half teaspoon forms the cookies.

8 comments:

  1. I love it when things are miniaturized. It means I can eat a bunch and delude myself into thinking that I haven't indulged all that much after all. These look cute and tasty.

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  2. Hi there, I tried these. They weren't as itty bitty as yours but I liked them very much. I'm going to make them again this weekend. I'm goingbto tweak the recipe a bit to see what happens. I'd like more butter in it and want to use a dark brown molasses cane sugar to see if the taste will be more complex. Will let you know how it turns out if you like. :-)

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  3. Hi, Ann. I'm glad you've tried the recipe, and I would LOVE to hear how the tweaking turns out. : )

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  4. Hi, I'm a visitor to your blog and tried these after continuously making disappointing cookies for years. I did happen to overmix by mistake and they were still delicious, despite the next batch being even better. Thank you so much for this!

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    Replies
    1. Well, you're welcome. Thanks for taking the time to let me know you liked the recipe. I'm glad they were delicious for you. :)

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  5. Hi, I'm so glad that I found your blog. I have always wanted to bake a delicious cookies for my kids.. I would like to try out your recipes and I'm sure that my kids will love it. It look so tempting..Hehehe. but before that, i need your help me regarding the measurement.

    3/4 cup butter, softened= if I were to use gram. what are the weight of it.?
    1/4 cup Crisco= g??
    1 ½ cups chopped lightly toasted pecans (optional)= g?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Noora,
      Where are you from that you measure in grams? Canada? UK? Just curious. I've listed the cup/gram conversions for you below, but I got them at the website at the end of this comment. Very handy tool. :)
      I hope you and your kids like the cookies!

      3/4 cup=85 grams
      1/4 cup=30 grams
      1 1/2 cups=170 grams

      http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/tools.measures/Measures.cfm

      Delete
  6. Hello, it's Ann from the comment above about using all butter. Finally, I made it. This evening.

    I converted the recipe to grams for some of the ingredients and used the creaming method instead by default. Made only half the recipe.

    Here is what I did:
    113g butter, just softened + 70g caster sugar + 70g light brown sugar + 2 teaspoons vanilla essence + 1/4 teaspoon coffee essence. Cream together. Beat in 1/2 an egg.
    Fold in 180g plain flour + 1 1/2 tbsp desiccated coconut pre-ground into a powder + 1/4 teaspoon baking powder + 1/3 teaspoon baking soda, chocolate chips and toasted chopped almonds.
    Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Pinch tiny pieces of dough and place on lined baking trays. Bake on 150 Celsius for about 20-25 minutes depending on oven. Cool cookies on trays and then store in an airtight container.

    They are so very very good little cookies! They maintained their shape in the oven. Thank you again!

    ReplyDelete

Hello! If your comment is more of a question about something you are cooking RIGHT NOW, please email me the question in addition to posting it here. I check my email more frequently than I check my blog comments. :)
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