I saw Sarah Kieffer's pan-banging chocolate chip cookie recipe when it was featured in The New York Times three years ago and knew that the recipe had gone viral. But at the time I was not tempted in the slightest to give the recipe a try. I firmly believe that Jacques Torres' chocolate chip cookie recipe reigns supreme, and the whole pan-banging phenomenon just seemed like a gimmick to me. Fast forward three years to when I bought a copy of Kieffer's cookbook 100 Cookies, which has an entire chapter of pan-banging cookie recipes. I couldn't just ignore them, so I decided to start with the chocolate chip cookie recipe that started it all.
Kieffer's "pan-banging" technique involves baking cookies until the edges start to set and the centers are puffed, and then banging the pan against the oven rack every few minutes to cause the centers to collapse and form a series of ripples around the outer edge. In theory, each bang forms one ripple. The point of this technique is not just to make an interesting-looking cookie. It also creates a texture that is quite unexpected for a large, very thin cookie -- crisp just around the edges but still chewy and soft in the center. There are a lot of variables required to create a pan-banging cookie. You need the right ratio of sugar to brown sugar, the right amount of butter, the right type of flour, and baking sheets lined with aluminum foil... In other words, you can't just apply this technique to any cookie recipe.
To make the dough, you beat room temperature butter with sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, add egg, water, and vanilla; incorporate flour, salt, and baking soda; and mix in chocolate (I used Cacao Barry Guayaquil 64% extra-bitter pistoles). I first tried baking cookies that were portioned with a #16 scoop. Those cookies ended up 4.25 inches in diameter and I didn't get much rippling around the edges despite my repeated pan banging. So I tried baking slightly larger cookies that were portioned with a #12 scoop. They ended up five inches in diameter and had much more pronounced ripples around the edges. In the photo below, the #12 scoop cookies are in the middle row and the #16 scoop cookies are in the top and bottom rows.
I did a little back-of-the-envelope calculation and figured that this recipe produces a quart of dough. So if you use a #X scoop, you will get X cookies per batch (the number on a scoop tells you how many scoops are required to make a quart; the larger the number, the smaller the capacity of the scoop). To get the yield of only 10 cookies specified in the cookbook, you would need to use a #10 scoop, which is even bigger than the #12 scoop I used for my giant 5-inch cookies.
I was very impressed with how chewy the centers of the cookies were, because the cookies were remarkably thin and I would have imagined that any chocolate chip cookie that thin would have to be crisp. Even though my smaller cookies weren't as rippled, they were just as tasty as the larger ones. I thought that these were very good chocolate chip cookies, but the flavor was not as deep and well developed as the Jacques Torres recipe (then again, the Jacques Torres cookies require at least 24 hours of chilling time before baking, which helps improve their flavor). I'm glad I sprinkled a little Maldon salt on the cookies right after taking them out of the oven, because it helped cut the sweetness.
Even though I don't think these are the best-tasting chocolate chip cookies, they have a terrific texture and their enormous size and svelte profile make a big impression. I wouldn't turn one of these down. But there are some definite drawbacks to these pan-banging cookies. As I discovered first hand, you really do have to make them huge to get the rippled effect at the edges. The large size is a bit intimidating for tasters -- not everyone wants to eat a 5-inch diameter cookie! The large cookie size also creates more work for the baker. The cookies I made with a #12 scoop were so large that I could only fit four cookies at a time on a half-sheet pan, meaning it was pretty slow going to bake through a batch of dough, even though I got a fairly low yield. And you can't just put the cookies in the oven and walk away. You have to actively attend to the oven and diligently bang each pan of cookies every couple of minutes during the last half of the baking time.
In the end, I think that these cookies are highly impractical, but I can't deny their appeal, and I know that I'll be making them again. There is something quite whimsical and alluring about them.
Recipe: "[Pan-Banging] Chocolate Chip Cookies," from 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer. The recipe in the cookbook is not the same as the one that was featured in The New York Times.
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