The expression "you eat with your eyes first" definitely holds true for me. I'm not ashamed to admit that a fair number of my recipe selections are based purely on the photos in cookbooks. Such was the case when I decided to make the "Butterscotch Marble Blondie Drops" from Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies. I had never seen, much less made, a cookie that looked like the ones in the cookbook photo -- big, perfectly round, extremely thin with graceful tapered edges, and studded with delicate chocolate swirls.
The recipe is quite easy. To make the cookie batter, you beat room temperature butter with brown sugar and vanilla; add eggs; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt). The batter was quite loose, like stiff cake batter. I used a #40 scoop to drop the batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet; drizzled on melted bittersweet chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger 62% petite baking squares); and used a toothpick to marble the chocolate through the cookie dough. This wasn't difficult since the batter was so soft. I had a lot of melted chocolate left over -- I weighed it and it turned out that I had only used one ounce out of the four ounces I had melted for the recipe.
I got 30 cookies from a batch of dough and I had to bake them for 13 minutes, longer than the recipe specified. The cookies spread a lot during baking and turned out very thin, although not all of them retained a perfectly round shape. I thought that the chocolate marbling effect was unusual and quite pretty.
I tasted a cookie soon after baking and didn't like it very much. The flavor was very sweet and butterscotch-y, but it was completely cakey, which is my least favorite cookie texture. I like crisp or chewy, but I just don't get the point of cakey cookies. Also, the recipe headnote describes these as having a "soft center and super crisp edges," so I wasn't expecting the cookies to be soft throughout. The following morning I had another cookie and I liked it better; the edges had crisped up quite a bit. I actually liked this cookie more and more as time went on. By the evening of day two, the entire cookie was chewy. By day three, the cookie was superchewy and I thought it was terrific.
I think I probably could have avoided the cakey texture by baking the cookies for another minute or two, but regardless, I'm glad I happened to keep some around for a few days to be able to appreciate their evolving texture over time. Their strong butterscotch flavor does make these cookies seem like blondies in cookie form. The chocolate is essentially just decorative, but it is a beautiful touch.
Recipe: "Butterscotch Marble Blondie Drops" from Big Fat Cookies by Elinor Klivans, recipe available here at Cookstr.
The recipe is quite easy. To make the cookie batter, you beat room temperature butter with brown sugar and vanilla; add eggs; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt). The batter was quite loose, like stiff cake batter. I used a #40 scoop to drop the batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet; drizzled on melted bittersweet chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger 62% petite baking squares); and used a toothpick to marble the chocolate through the cookie dough. This wasn't difficult since the batter was so soft. I had a lot of melted chocolate left over -- I weighed it and it turned out that I had only used one ounce out of the four ounces I had melted for the recipe.
I tasted a cookie soon after baking and didn't like it very much. The flavor was very sweet and butterscotch-y, but it was completely cakey, which is my least favorite cookie texture. I like crisp or chewy, but I just don't get the point of cakey cookies. Also, the recipe headnote describes these as having a "soft center and super crisp edges," so I wasn't expecting the cookies to be soft throughout. The following morning I had another cookie and I liked it better; the edges had crisped up quite a bit. I actually liked this cookie more and more as time went on. By the evening of day two, the entire cookie was chewy. By day three, the cookie was superchewy and I thought it was terrific.
I think I probably could have avoided the cakey texture by baking the cookies for another minute or two, but regardless, I'm glad I happened to keep some around for a few days to be able to appreciate their evolving texture over time. Their strong butterscotch flavor does make these cookies seem like blondies in cookie form. The chocolate is essentially just decorative, but it is a beautiful touch.
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