Sunday, February 14, 2010

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies - made February 5, 2010 from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle

I can never resist trying out a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I have 2 that I like to use but I regularly try out new ones "just in case" I stumble upon a really fantastic one. This one is different than most CCC recipes I've tried in that it uses sour cream. I was a little skeptical but the Red Velvet Cookies use sour cream so I figured that was a good sign. Wrong. I made the cookie dough, portioned it into dough balls and put them in the freezer. That's when I got the first inkling that these might not turn out the way I wanted. The cookie dough was soft and never actually froze. I kept them in the freezer for several days but when I baked them, they still weren't frozen. They were just really cold little dough balls. Sure enough, they spread upon being baked, about as much as if I hadn't frozen them at all and some ran into each other. These came out cakey and if you haven't been following my blog, let me say again that I don't like cakey chocolate chip cookies or cakey brownies. If I wanted cakey, I'd make a cake. Taste-wise, they were your standard chocolate chip cookie-tasting cookies but the texture is what makes them only "okay" in my book. I like my cookies to have crisp edges and chewy middles and be thick, not spread-in-the-oven-too-much thin.

I brought these to work and left them in the anonymity first in the kitchen of my work floor and the next day (baking off the rest of the dough) on a different floor since I wasn't all that thrilled to be associated with them. However, my coworkers regularly remind me I'm "too picky" and my taste buds are apparently more finicky than theirs. I was stopped in the hallway by 2 different people who really liked the cookies (go figure) and chastised by others for leaving them on a different floor as they didn't find out about them in time to go get some. I still maintain I was doing them a favor but they saw it differently. To a couple of others who did taste them and thought they were delicious, I had to promise them to bring in my "good" chocolate chip cookies so they'd know what I meant by a good one.



Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
½ cup sour cream
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts
12 ounces bittersweet bar chocolate, chopped into ¼-inch or smaller pieces

1. Position two racks near the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375˚F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or foil.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugars and vanilla extract at medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the sour cream, mixing until blended. At low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the raisins, nuts and chopped chocolate.
4. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies 2 inches apart. Bake, two sheets at a time, 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown; switch the position of the sheets halfway through baking so that the cookies brown evenly. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to a week. Makes about 58 cookies.

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