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Cookies... the final act

So, I got a lot of interest in the cookie story (go to Shaving the Yak to read that post) and wanted to know how they turned out. So, here are some lessons I learned.

The Oven
Just because you can do mathematical calculations, doesn't mean you can change cooking instructions from fahrenheit to celsius easily. The recipe calls for a 375F oven. So, I pull out my trusty web browser and type "375 fahrenheit to celsius." Trusty Google tells me it is 190.556 celsius. Fair enough. But the oven goes in 25 degree increments. So, my first try is to set the oven to 200 and reduce the cooking time. This one cookie (I am smart enough to try them one at a time) is a charred briquet glued to the cookie sheet. OK, so, I try 175 degrees and keep the cooking time about the same. This time, a brown briquet glued to the cookie sheet. Hrmph. Obviously I need to keep reducing the temperature, but also I need to address the sticking problem. I tried greasing the sheet the way my mother did, but this added a hard crust to the edges. I went out and got the parchment paper. Now, with the cookies on parchment and the oven at 150, I got a fairly good representation.

Chocolate pieces
I read up on this and it seems the chocolate morsels we use for chocolate chips have a higher cocoa butter contents so they don't become a puddle of chocolate in the oven. The chocolate chips you can buy here are very small (I think about a 1/3 of the size of the US morsels) and I wanted that big chocolate ooze in the cookie. Also, what kind? I am not usually a chocolate maven, so I was a bit out of my element. Milk chocolate? Bakers? What percent (of what I am not sure, but I can get 84%, 70%)? Nougat? Caramel? I thought it best to go classic here and not muck around with additions to the chocolate. I think the percentages has to do with the cocoa, but the other percentage I think is the sweetener. I remember trying 80% and it was not very sweet. I opted for the 70% (I couldn't find lower) and that was the right taste.

Now, size. I first did fairly large pieces, but these did melt and I ended up with about one, maybe two pieces per cookie, which isn't exactly what I was looking for. I ended up cutting them about 1.3-1.5 centimetres or about 1/4 to 1/3 inches. That worked well in the dough.

Additions
The recipe didn't call for nuts. I think we have all become a bit nut phobic. For good reason, since many people now have nut allergies, but I wanted that flavour, so I added pecans, chopped.

Wrapping
Finally, how do I present these? I found cardboard boxes just the right size at a craft store. Seemed the right size, but the grease from the cookies would leak. I wanted to find some cellophane, but did not, so I settled for plastic wrap. Not as Martha Stewart as I would have liked, but you have to go with what works. Added some ribbon and (hopefully) this will be decorative enough for the Christmas event.






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