Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe comes from America's text Kitchen

This is the original Recipe
1 3/4 c. all purpose flour (219g)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (198g)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (150g)
1/2 cup sugar (100g)
1tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
7.5 oz semisweet chocolate chips (212g)
3/4 cup chopped pecans (82g)

Steps:
1. Convert the recipe to grams
2. Try the original recipe to see how it works with your flour selection.
3. I am very picky on appearance of my cookies since I sell them, not only must they be very good they must be perfectly round, slightly chewing and consistent batch after batch. So, after making them according to the recipe they were, tasty but they spread too much and were thin and crispy, not round or pretty at all.
4. I use soft white 100% milled flour for my cookies most of the time. I find you need to add extra flour about 1-2 tablespoons per cup in the recipe. So with this recipe I ended up with 270g of soft white flour, (2 1/4 cups). I also, like the outside of the cookie to have a crisp texture and soft in the middle. To do this I added 15g (2 T) barley flour. Barley flour has no gluten but does add a crispness to the cookie. I then added 18g soy (3 T) soy give the cookie a melt in your mouth texture.
5. Since whole grain flour is heavier it sometimes needs more lift, and I wanted a slightly puffy cookie. Baking soda is activated when the cookie is baked while baking powder is activated by moisture and then by heat. The recipe did not call for baking powder so I kept baking soda and added 3/4 tsp baking powder to the recipe to give it more lift.
6. When I baked the original recipe it had too much butter (fat) and spread. Whole grain flour has the germ which is oil so many time you can reduce the fat in recipe. I kept the butter the same but omitted the egg yolk in the recipe, this reduced the fat and made it easier to make since it now was just one large egg.
7. I kept the sugars the same, but you should view sugar as a liquid when baking and many times you can reduce the sugar. My goal is not to be low sugar but the best chocolate chip cookie made with 100% whole grain flour.
8. I decided it needed more vanilla so increased the vanilla to 1 1/2 tablespoons. I also added 1/4 teaspoon espresso coffee to enhance the chocolate chips.
9. My last change was in the size of the chocolate chips, the small mini chips gave the cookie a more uniform appearance. I omitted the nuts altogether because of many customers with nut allergies.  After batches and tastings this is a very good chocolate chip recipe that is fool proof. It produces a perfectly round slightly chewing cookie with a more adult taste.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bake: 14 minutes
Yields: About 2 dozen
Oven: 350 degrees
Here is my recipe and instructions:
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside
270g Soft White Flour (2 1/4 c.)
15g Barley Flour (2 T.)
18g Soy Flour (3 T.)
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
3/4 tsp. Baking Powder

Melt on Stove in Pan
140g (10 T.) Melted unsalted butter until brown

In a bowl you can use as a double boiler over the pan
56g (4 T.)  unsalted butter
150g Brown Sugar (3/4 c.)
100g Sugar (1/2 c.)
1 1/2 T. Vanilla
1/4 tsp. espresso Coffee
1 Extra Lg. Egg

150g mini chocolate chips

Directions:

• On the stove melt the 140g of butter until slightly brown
  
• Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well with a whisk
• In a separate bowl, add the butter, sugars, vanilla and coffee. Add the brown butter to this and place it over boiling water to heat. (double boiler). Stir until   the butter is melted and sugars are combined. Then add the egg and mix will.
• Pour this mixture over the dry mixture and combine until all of the flour is incorporated. Place in the fridge to cool before adding the chocolate chips. Once cooled add the chocolate chips and scoop out on to a cookie sheet.
• Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight.
• Place 8 on the silpat on the baking sheet
  
• Bake for 14 minutes at 350 degrees
  
• Remove from oven and leave on baking sheet 2 minutes to firm up
  
• Place on cooling rack
  

Now I know most of you use cups, and tablespoons for measuring tools when baking. There are many advantages to converting your favorite recipes to grams, the most important is LESS DISHES TO WASH.


Now I hope that got your attention, who likes to do dishes. There are some very practical reasons to convert your recipes. The main reason is the ability to adjust the size of the recipe with ease. Let me give you a real life example, I saw this muffin recipe that I thought would be good. I had all the ingredients and the recipe said it made 12 muffins.

I followed the instructions and they came out pretty good but, the recipe only made 10 muffins. Now I want to adjust the recipe up to make a full dozen. This is easy if your recipe is in grams. Having all the ingredients in grams allows you to increase the recipe by 10-12% depending on how full you fill your muffin cups.

This is a link to a page that has many items in grams but at the bottom of the page is a link to a web site that I use to convert my recipes. The site is easy to use and has most baking items. Now if the item you are looking for is not on the site just Google it "what is a cup of buttermilk in grams" you will find the answer.  Link

When you are increasing your recipe increase the flour, sugar, butter, liquids all of the main ingredients. Eggs are always an issue, use an extra large instead of a large. I usually leave the leavening agents and extracts the same, unless I am increasing it a lot.

Now make the recipe again and specifically note the height of the muffins, do you need to increase the leavening agents? If so add 1/4 tsp more of the baking powder or soda. Taste the level of the spices and extracts do you need to increase them or are they just fine. Adjust them if you need to.

It may take another trial until you get the perfect recipe but, you will then have something that you can consistently relay on coming out perfectly every time you bake it. The best part is, there's less dishes to clean up!

Happy Baking!
Tamara