Posts
I made a batch of my butter cookies with one egg yolk. It seemed to make a huge difference. This was the procedure I followed, which is identical to the mixing experiments except for adding an egg yolk:
1. Get 4 sticks of unsalted butter (Weyauwega brand, for now) warming up from refrigerator temperature, and set out one egg.
2. Measure 405 grams (about 2 cups) of C&H Granulated Sugar.
3. Stir 4+ cups of unsifted Pillsbury Best All-Purpose Flour in a bowl.
4. Weigh out 495 grams (about four level cups) of the stirred flour into a second bowl.
5. Add 0.5 teaspoon baking powder to the weighed flour and stir about 40 times briskly with a whisk.
6. Sift the weighed flour and baking powder into a third bowl using the trigger-handle triple sifter.
7. When the butter has come to 68-71 degrees, record the temperature and proceed.
8. Beat the butter in the large bowl at Level 2 (folding dry ingredients) for 15 seconds.
9. Beat the butter at Level 7 (creaming speed) for 30 seconds.
10. Add sugar. Beat at Level 2 for 15 seconds.
11. Beat butter and sugar at Level 7 for six minutes.
12. 60 seconds before the end of the creaming time, add 1 teaspoon Durkee Imitation Vanilla.
13. Measure the temperature of the butter/sugar mixture at the end of the creaming period.
14. Measure the weight of one level cup of the butter/sugar mixture at the end of the creaming period.
15. Add one egg yolk (at room temperature).
16. Beat at Level 7 for one more minute.
17. Add about two cups of the flour to the butter. Mix at level 2 for 20 seconds.
18. Add the remaining two cups of flour. Mix at level 2 for 3 minutes.
19. Divide the dough into several equal portions. (Three equal portions by weight is about 434 grams each).
20. Form each portion into a roll about 2 inches in diameter.
21. Refrigerate all the rolls for 2 hours.
22. 30 minutes before the 2 hours is up, turn the oven on to 350 F.
23. Slice the rolls into quarter-inch slices.
24. Bake on my Wilton and Williams-Sonoma pans. Determine to 30 seconds how long it takes to bake to the point of crispness.
25. After the cookies are cooled, save several samples in a plastic bag in the freezer.
26. Take notes on the resulting cookies.
I attached a photo. The two on the left are the top and bottom of cookies baked on the Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch Commercial Quality Cookie Sheet for 12.5 minutes. The two on the right are the top and bottom of cookies baked on the Wilton EverGlide pan for 8 minutes. The baking times were the minimum time needed to create cookies that break instead of bend after they are fully cooled. You can see that the cookies look almost the same. I see several things that are pretty neat:
A) The "ring" around the edge of the Wilton cookie is greatly deemphasized. I talked about the rings in my February 15th post.
B) There was equal spreading on both pans, instead of far more spreading on the Wilton pan. This was due to the 3-minute mixing time.
C) There is no browning of the top of the cookie from the Wilton pan, though the bottom is somewhat browned.
D) The gas bubbles that formed are about the same size, as visible on the cookie bottoms.
If you compare this photo with the bottoms of the cookies in the picture from my February 15th post and a couple of earlier ones, you can see that the size of the gas bubbles is much smaller on the Wilton pan when an egg yolk is used. I think this makes a big difference in the way the cookie turns out. Not that the gas bubbles themselves necessarily affect anything, but they are evidence of something that happens while the cookie bakes, and clearly something different has happened on the Wilton pan.
The all-important taste test was amazing. First I'll mention something I would consider a negative - the taste seemed completely different because of the flavor of the egg yolk. I never would have guessed it would make a big difference adding the egg yolk, but it sure does! After I bit into it, I was immediately taken aback. What? Is this the same cookie? Well, no! I liked the flavor better without the egg yolk. Of course, eggs are an extremely common ingredient in cookies of all kinds, and saying it's not good because there is an egg yolk in it would be pretty silly. But it sure made a difference!
The browning on the bottom from the Wilton pan was only moderate, but the flavor difference was obvious when first tasting the Goldtouch cookie, then the Wilton cookie. The influence of the burnt flour/butter/sugar from the Wilton pan was a little distasteful. That difference, like the egg yolk, also really struck me.
The texture of the Wilton cookie was completely different from all the test cookies I made on the Wilton pan previously. It was almost the same as the cookie from the Goldtouch pan! The only difference was that the Wilton cookie was just slightly harder. But for the first time, the Wilton cookie also had a melt-in-your-mouth sort of texture that was just wonderful.
These cookies were definitely not as sweet as any of the butter cookies I made before, even though they contained an equal amount of sugar. I can think of two reasons why that might be. First, the extra water from the egg yolk allowed the sugar to disolve in the cookie differently. Second, the flavor from the egg yolk changes the way the taste buds work or the way the brain processes "sweetness" so it didn't seem as sweet. I preferred the sweetness of the cookies I made previously, so this was another negative. I commented yesterday that the cookies from the 5-minute mixing experiment were also less sweet, and I don't really know why. I wonder if it's for the same reason? If it is, it wouldn't have to do specifically with the egg yolk - but the egg yolk and extra mixing could possibly trigger a single effect that reduces the sweetness.
The shape of the cookies was great. I did a little better job than usual of forming the rolls into cylinders during rolling, but the "rounds" I sliced from the cooled rolls were still more like "ovals". I was amazed to see all the cookies on both pans come out of the oven as circles. I'll be darned! The 3 and 4-minute mixing experiment without egg yolks also did a good job, but the uniformity of circularity seemed notable in these cookies. The Goldtouch pan often shows this quality, but the Wilton pan has generally been delivering deformed Quasimodo-like cookies. The egg yolk seems to overcome that problem.
These cookies tried hard to be a little puffier. When I pulled the wilton pan from the oven, many of the cookies were a little raised, but they flattened quickly as they cooled, and the end result was flat cookies. However, they were not at all wafer-thin like many of my previous cookies have been. The Wilton cookies have a slight amount of height to them, which is uniform across the diameter of the cookie. The Goldtouch cookies also were higher at the moment I took them from the oven and flattened out, but in their case more of the height was retained, and so the Goldtouch cookies are not flat across the top, but tend to be slightly puffy. This was apparent in earlier batches without egg yolks, but with the egg yolk it's more than "subtle."
Lastly, the baking time changed with the addition of the egg yolk. I've been carefully testing how long it takes to bake the cookies with all these experiments. On the Wilton pan, the times have regularly been from 6.75 to 7.5 minutes, mostly around 7 minutes. The baking time on the Wilton pan went up to 8 minutes. To my surprise, the baking time on the Williams-Sonoma Commercial Quality Cookie Sheet did not change - it was still baked, just barely, at 12.5 minutes. Along with the change in baking time went a delay in how long it took for the cookies to brown. The 8-minute cookies from the wilton pan were not browned at all, even though the cookies were fully baked. That's an interesting change, because previously the browning definitely occurred as the cookies finished baking. A batch I took from the oven at 8 minutes 20 seconds did have noticeable browning around the edges, though.
I bet these cookies would be enhanced by frosting, because the sweetness from the frosting would counter the relative lack of sweetness from the cookie itself. I am tempted to try it using a frosting recipe I see on mixingbowl.com. I have so few cookies to frost, though, so it's more tossed ingredients. I guess I'll investigate that later, but it seems worth mentioning.
1. Get 4 sticks of unsalted butter (Weyauwega brand, for now) warming up from refrigerator temperature, and set out one egg.
2. Measure 405 grams (about 2 cups) of C&H Granulated Sugar.
3. Stir 4+ cups of unsifted Pillsbury Best All-Purpose Flour in a bowl.
4. Weigh out 495 grams (about four level cups) of the stirred flour into a second bowl.
5. Add 0.5 teaspoon baking powder to the weighed flour and stir about 40 times briskly with a whisk.
6. Sift the weighed flour and baking powder into a third bowl using the trigger-handle triple sifter.
7. When the butter has come to 68-71 degrees, record the temperature and proceed.
8. Beat the butter in the large bowl at Level 2 (folding dry ingredients) for 15 seconds.
9. Beat the butter at Level 7 (creaming speed) for 30 seconds.
10. Add sugar. Beat at Level 2 for 15 seconds.
11. Beat butter and sugar at Level 7 for six minutes.
12. 60 seconds before the end of the creaming time, add 1 teaspoon Durkee Imitation Vanilla.
13. Measure the temperature of the butter/sugar mixture at the end of the creaming period.
14. Measure the weight of one level cup of the butter/sugar mixture at the end of the creaming period.
15. Add one egg yolk (at room temperature).
16. Beat at Level 7 for one more minute.
17. Add about two cups of the flour to the butter. Mix at level 2 for 20 seconds.
18. Add the remaining two cups of flour. Mix at level 2 for 3 minutes.
19. Divide the dough into several equal portions. (Three equal portions by weight is about 434 grams each).
20. Form each portion into a roll about 2 inches in diameter.
21. Refrigerate all the rolls for 2 hours.
22. 30 minutes before the 2 hours is up, turn the oven on to 350 F.
23. Slice the rolls into quarter-inch slices.
24. Bake on my Wilton and Williams-Sonoma pans. Determine to 30 seconds how long it takes to bake to the point of crispness.
25. After the cookies are cooled, save several samples in a plastic bag in the freezer.
26. Take notes on the resulting cookies.
I attached a photo. The two on the left are the top and bottom of cookies baked on the Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch Commercial Quality Cookie Sheet for 12.5 minutes. The two on the right are the top and bottom of cookies baked on the Wilton EverGlide pan for 8 minutes. The baking times were the minimum time needed to create cookies that break instead of bend after they are fully cooled. You can see that the cookies look almost the same. I see several things that are pretty neat:
A) The "ring" around the edge of the Wilton cookie is greatly deemphasized. I talked about the rings in my February 15th post.
B) There was equal spreading on both pans, instead of far more spreading on the Wilton pan. This was due to the 3-minute mixing time.
C) There is no browning of the top of the cookie from the Wilton pan, though the bottom is somewhat browned.
D) The gas bubbles that formed are about the same size, as visible on the cookie bottoms.
If you compare this photo with the bottoms of the cookies in the picture from my February 15th post and a couple of earlier ones, you can see that the size of the gas bubbles is much smaller on the Wilton pan when an egg yolk is used. I think this makes a big difference in the way the cookie turns out. Not that the gas bubbles themselves necessarily affect anything, but they are evidence of something that happens while the cookie bakes, and clearly something different has happened on the Wilton pan.
The all-important taste test was amazing. First I'll mention something I would consider a negative - the taste seemed completely different because of the flavor of the egg yolk. I never would have guessed it would make a big difference adding the egg yolk, but it sure does! After I bit into it, I was immediately taken aback. What? Is this the same cookie? Well, no! I liked the flavor better without the egg yolk. Of course, eggs are an extremely common ingredient in cookies of all kinds, and saying it's not good because there is an egg yolk in it would be pretty silly. But it sure made a difference!
The browning on the bottom from the Wilton pan was only moderate, but the flavor difference was obvious when first tasting the Goldtouch cookie, then the Wilton cookie. The influence of the burnt flour/butter/sugar from the Wilton pan was a little distasteful. That difference, like the egg yolk, also really struck me.
The texture of the Wilton cookie was completely different from all the test cookies I made on the Wilton pan previously. It was almost the same as the cookie from the Goldtouch pan! The only difference was that the Wilton cookie was just slightly harder. But for the first time, the Wilton cookie also had a melt-in-your-mouth sort of texture that was just wonderful.
These cookies were definitely not as sweet as any of the butter cookies I made before, even though they contained an equal amount of sugar. I can think of two reasons why that might be. First, the extra water from the egg yolk allowed the sugar to disolve in the cookie differently. Second, the flavor from the egg yolk changes the way the taste buds work or the way the brain processes "sweetness" so it didn't seem as sweet. I preferred the sweetness of the cookies I made previously, so this was another negative. I commented yesterday that the cookies from the 5-minute mixing experiment were also less sweet, and I don't really know why. I wonder if it's for the same reason? If it is, it wouldn't have to do specifically with the egg yolk - but the egg yolk and extra mixing could possibly trigger a single effect that reduces the sweetness.
The shape of the cookies was great. I did a little better job than usual of forming the rolls into cylinders during rolling, but the "rounds" I sliced from the cooled rolls were still more like "ovals". I was amazed to see all the cookies on both pans come out of the oven as circles. I'll be darned! The 3 and 4-minute mixing experiment without egg yolks also did a good job, but the uniformity of circularity seemed notable in these cookies. The Goldtouch pan often shows this quality, but the Wilton pan has generally been delivering deformed Quasimodo-like cookies. The egg yolk seems to overcome that problem.
These cookies tried hard to be a little puffier. When I pulled the wilton pan from the oven, many of the cookies were a little raised, but they flattened quickly as they cooled, and the end result was flat cookies. However, they were not at all wafer-thin like many of my previous cookies have been. The Wilton cookies have a slight amount of height to them, which is uniform across the diameter of the cookie. The Goldtouch cookies also were higher at the moment I took them from the oven and flattened out, but in their case more of the height was retained, and so the Goldtouch cookies are not flat across the top, but tend to be slightly puffy. This was apparent in earlier batches without egg yolks, but with the egg yolk it's more than "subtle."
Lastly, the baking time changed with the addition of the egg yolk. I've been carefully testing how long it takes to bake the cookies with all these experiments. On the Wilton pan, the times have regularly been from 6.75 to 7.5 minutes, mostly around 7 minutes. The baking time on the Wilton pan went up to 8 minutes. To my surprise, the baking time on the Williams-Sonoma Commercial Quality Cookie Sheet did not change - it was still baked, just barely, at 12.5 minutes. Along with the change in baking time went a delay in how long it took for the cookies to brown. The 8-minute cookies from the wilton pan were not browned at all, even though the cookies were fully baked. That's an interesting change, because previously the browning definitely occurred as the cookies finished baking. A batch I took from the oven at 8 minutes 20 seconds did have noticeable browning around the edges, though.
I bet these cookies would be enhanced by frosting, because the sweetness from the frosting would counter the relative lack of sweetness from the cookie itself. I am tempted to try it using a frosting recipe I see on mixingbowl.com. I have so few cookies to frost, though, so it's more tossed ingredients. I guess I'll investigate that later, but it seems worth mentioning.
When I look at the tops of the cookies very carefully, I see that a number of them have what look like pinholes in the tops. Not more than a couple of pinholes in one cookie, though, and they are really unnoticeable. That does indicate that perhaps an additional 20 seconds or so of mixing with the flour might be better, when an egg yolk is added.
I think the next thing to try is using the egg white instead of the yolk. Coming right up!
I think the next thing to try is using the egg white instead of the yolk. Coming right up!
No comments:
Post a Comment