There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Once you understand the techniques of making a chocolate chip cookie that when things really get exciting as you do some culinary off roading and play around with ratio of ingredients and manipulation of the variables. So let's see if we can demystify some of the mystique of a good cookie.
Ingredients: Unsalted Butter* 2 cups 1 #
Brown Sugar 2 cups 1# 2 oz
Sugar 1 cup 9 oz
Eggs* 3 each 3 oz
Vanilla extract 2 Tablespoons 1 oz
All Purpose Flour 4 cups 1# 4 oz
Baking Soda 1 tsp .2 oz
Salt 1 tsp .2 oz
Chocolate Chips 4 cups 2#
* items need to be at room temperature
Process: 1. Cream the butter and sugar. 2. Add the egg and then the vanilla 3. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; mix to 50 percent incorporation 4. Add chocolate chips and mix just until incorporated. 5. Use cookie scoop to portion cookies\ 6. Bake at 350 in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
Mixing Method: Creaming Steps of the creaming method for cookies: 1. Cream softened fat and sugar 2. Add room temperature liquid ingredients to the creamed mixture 3. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture
Step 1: Creaming
Step 2: Liquid Ingredients Most cookies are low in moisture, when compared to cakes so very often the only liquid ingredients are often the eggs and a little bit of extract. So it is very important that the eggs are the right temperature too. Just like the butter if you know in advance that you are going to be baking pull your eggs out and set them on the counter next to the butter to warm up. If you find yourself making cookies without advanced notice you can borrow this tip from Julia Child. Place your cold eggs in some hot tap water while you start making your cookies when you get to the point you need the eggs poor off the water and crack your eggs now have room temperature eggs. Mix in the liquid ingredients, now that they are at room temperature they will emulsify right into the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Mix it until everything comes together and is evenly mixed. This is also a great time to scrape down the sides (and bottom) of the bowl with a rubber spatula, if you don’t you could end up with a higher concentration of sugar stuck to the side of the bowl and the last cookies you scoop might have more sugar in spots. These higher concentrations of sugar liquify in the oven and spread more, that is why you might have a nice round cookie with a little part that spreads more giving you a weird shape.
Step 3: Dry Ingredients For our Chocolate Chip Cookies our dry ingredients are the All Purpose Flour, Baking Soda, Kosher Salt and Chocolate Chips. I like to use half dark and half milk chocolate when I make the cookies.
Step 4: Portion I like to use a portion scoop to ensure that all the cookies are the same size. This helps not only with a more professional presentation of the finished product but also ensure that the cookies bake at the same rate.
Step 5: Bake This is where you can let a little personal preference enter the mix. I tend to like a softer cookie while some like them crisp. I shoot for a happy mix with crisp golden brown on the edge and soft chewy centers. If you are of the crisp cookie persuasion simply leave them in the oven a few extra minutes.
To have a good uniform bake it is important to preheat your oven. If the oven temperature is too low (or coming up to temp) when you put that first try in the fats will start to melt and spread further before the proteins coagulate and the starches gelatinize and you will have flat thin cookies. If it is too hot the opposite occurs the proteins and starches set before the fats have a chance to spread much. So I like to cook them at 350 (325 for confection) for about 10 to 12 minutes or till they are GDB (golden brown and delicious) You know your oven best if it tends to take a bit longer then leave them in a bit longer. Cookies are so small that we judge the doneness of the bake by the color of the cookies. If you are unsure how accurate your oven is you can pick up an oven thermometer and put it in the oven when you start preheating and see what the real temperature of your oven is (never trust the dial)