The protocol

 

As with all good things must come to a close. Below you will find my protocol and how I (or you!) could replicate this study.

I'll admit when I started this experiment, I did little to no planning. This experiment was designed more for the experience of doing an experiment rather than developing a novel technique or new discovery. I had one very clear goal and that was to make delicious cookies for my friends. Of course, to be qualified under experiment's guidelines I did use the scientific method.

From my experience working in the kitchen during my culinary courses, I know that for almost every cookie (especially for chocolate chip cookies) pastry chefs will ALWAYS use creamed butter. I still don't know why this is and if someone can explain the chemistry behind this I am super interested.

Here is my protocol revealed:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Mix thoroughly. When measuring out the flour use a dry measuring cup and scoop the flour into the cup with a spoon. Do not pack the flour and do not tap the dry measuring cup on the table. As one of my backers Tyler mentioned, to be accurate the flour should be weighed out on a scale. The protocol I used to measure flour is the protocol used by chefs.

Beat butter alone with a spatula. Add granulated sugar, beat until smooth. Add brown sugar, beat until smooth. Break up any clumps of brown sugar with the spatula. Add vanilla extract and beat until creamy. The butter must be at room temperature when you start (example). For granulated sugar you can scoop the sugar directly into a dry measuring cup, do not pack. For brown sugar scoop the sugar into the dry measuring cup, and pack it in. Add eggs one at a time, beat into until smooth. Eggs must must MUST be at room temperature.

(For the melted butter version, take the butter and place it in a microwavable bowl. Put in the microwave for 10 seconds. Check to see if it's melted, if not place in the microwave for another 10 seconds. Repeat until melted, but do not overheat.)

Gradually beat the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture until smooth, do not over beat.

Stir in the semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Cut three sheets of parchment paper. The parchment paper should be as big as the cookie sheet. Use the OXO small cookie scoop to make sure the cookie sizes are even. You can purchase this here. It looks like this.

 

Figure 1. Cookie dough layout. Make sure you put an 'X' in the top left corner to keep track that that is the top left. You can label the parchment with the temperature you plan to bake the cookies at. The one above will be baked at 350C.

Once the oven is preheated at 350C, wait another 10 minutes just to be certain. It be really accurate you should also take the temperature of the oven and monitor it throughout the entire baking cycle. Place the cookies in the oven for the amount of time outlined below.

 

In between baking cycles increase the oven temperature by 25C each time. Wait 10 minutes with no cookies in the oven before introducing the next batch.

When you switch over to baking the melted butter version (or any additional variable you've introduced) turn off the oven for 25 minutes. Preheat it again to 350C. Wait 10 minutes, then start baking.

Once each batch is done, take the cookies out of the oven and slide the parchment paper onto a wood surface. A large wood table is perfect for this. Let the cookies cool until at room temperature.

Alright, I've revealed the exact protocol to you... now I need to go do some work for experiment.com. I'll write about the results and discussion later today.

Laterrr,

C

P.S. Protocol critiques are encouraged!