The Way They Crumble

I'm only a few batches into my cookie adventure and I'm quite happy with the flavour. However, the texture and appearance has been a bit more of a challenge. The cookies were baking up with some pretty thin, feathery edges and while that added an interesting crunch, I did find that those edges were quite fragile and tended to drop a lot of crumbs.

So this time I tried adjusting how I was mixing the butter and sugar at the beginning, specifically by foregoing the hand whisk and beating the crap out of it with my electric mixer. What resulted was a surprisingly stiff and airy mixture that I was then able to add the egg to before folding in the flour and chocolate chips.

But of course how it looks and behaves during the cooking process isn't important, what's important is how they come out after they're baked.

And I have to say I'm pleased. The crispy feather edge is gone, and despite how tasty and caramelized it was I think I'm happy to see it go. The texture of the cookies has also changed fairly significantly, taking on a more airy texture rather than the more dense, chewy texture it previously had (and don't get me wrong, that was also pleasant in its own way). I also no longer get the somewhat unsightly ripples in the top of the cookie.

They do come out of the oven looking almost alarmingly puffy, which is amusing.

But thankfully they settle back down after cooling for a few minutes.

And of course, they're still as tasty as ever.