I currently have two aims. I want to have a go at baking a 'chimney cake' or kurtosh, because they are delicious and surely can't be impossible. Just a coil of bread covered in sugar, really. Here is the recipe I've found. If it doesn't work, I will probably not try again, I just want to give it one red hot go.
Secondly, I want to make my ideal choc chip cookie. I'm tired of the flat soft cookies, which are easy to make I admit, and yummy. But I want to experiment. I found an American recipe which was a very different place to start, but there were many variables in translating it, so it was a slight disappointment. Is baking soda the same as baking powder or bicarb soda? I guessed baking powder. They did rise a little. But other variations were that the recipe said 1 egg + 1 egg yolk. Whatever. I put in 2 eggs. Also, all I had was fancy sea salt, and it didn't disperse through the dough, it stayed in it's big grains, so every so often you get a salty-chocolate bite. That is less ideal, although some people are really into the salty sweet thing and have been impressed by it, the occasional tangy burst of a salt grain. But lesson learned, sea salt is not a baking salt.
Anyway, I was doubtful as I tasted the first results. But actually looking at the photos in the recipe again, maybe I got it pretty right, because they look similarly dense and doughy and brown, and if I make a few adjustments it could be the same but better. The thing I noted this time, other than about the salt, was that the way you put the cookie dough on the tray makes a difference. A round ball will melt flat, but a rough tall pile will make a thicker, chewier biscuit. Also the dough was refrigerated before baking. I would like to apply these techniques to my normal recipe and see what happens.
On a side note, I have also baked a batch of cookies which I added a packed of chocolate frosting mix to. Frosting from a packet of brownie mix. I don't think brownies need icing, they are already chocolatey enough. So I added it to a cookie mix. Not bad, in terms of the biscuit result, soft. Although they looked more chocolatey than they tasted, so each cookie was a little bit of a let down. If I had more choc chips in, they would have been better.
Baking soda is bicarbonate of soda
ReplyDeletePretty sure baking soda is bicarb soda. I know this because only bicarb soda is readily available here, but you can't make self-raising with bicarb alone (you need to pair it with cream of tartar, which is non-existant here, or use baking powder instead, which is here but hard to find). You could try again with bicarb and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteThanks for solving, friends!
ReplyDeleteI've found cream of tartar at the supermarket! You also use it for play dough :)
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