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Mike $
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I suggest you experiment on your own. My cookies come out just as I like them.
Cookies
- Thread starter Mike $
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Yukio
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Ah, but I haven't got a toaster oven.
Yukio
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I like raisins. I eat them frequently, usually mixed with peanuts for a snack. But thinking about chocolate chip cookies, I realise that I am super disappointed if I find raisins in there amongst the chocolate chips. 
Yes! There is a cookie recipe from when I was a kid that I loved: hermit cookies. We'd throw lots of things in but never chocolate chips. The only exception that I have is if I want a chocolate chip and cherry cookie, I will use dehydrated cherries, but that is for a very specific purpose and I am expecting the cherries with the chocolate.I like raisins. I eat them frequently, usually mixed with peanuts for a snack. But thinking about chocolate chip cookies, I realise that I am super disappointed if I find raisins in there amongst the chocolate chips.
Yukio
Well-known member
I guess I should include nuts in the list of disappointing things I sometimes find in chocolate chip cookies. I understand that they have their fans, too, but I like the cookies better with just chocolate bits and no nuts.
Speaking of chocolate, would you believe that here in Switzerland, it is pretty much impossible to find chocolate chips? Yup. Even though Switzerland is the home of the giant Nestle corporation, they don't market their Tollhouse Chips over here. Like the ancient mariner, it's chocolate, chocolate, everywhere; but not a drop as 'chips'. You can buy something called 'wurfel' which are teeny cubes of chocolate for baking, but it is not really good and expensive, too. Instead, you buy 50% dark chocolate bars at 60 cents for a 100g bar. Four of these, chopped up with a kitchen knife is about equal to a bag of chocolate chips.
Since I am on the subject, real vanilla extract is also hard to come by over here. You can buy whole vanilla beans easy enough, but you have to make your own extract by leaving them in a bottle of Vodka for a long time. Also unknown is brown sugar. You can find molasses in health food stores and make your own by adding it to granulated white sugar. For most recipes calling for brown sugar, I guess an amount of molasses to add to the mixing bowl first (more for dark brown sugar, less for light brown sugar) and then add white sugar to account for the rest of the weight of the sugar. Oh yeah, I got in the habit of weighing out ingredients in grams like the natives do. This is one thing I agree with over here, measurement by weight for baking is a lot more accurate and convenient than volumetric measures like I learned to do back home in the USA.
Speaking of chocolate, would you believe that here in Switzerland, it is pretty much impossible to find chocolate chips? Yup. Even though Switzerland is the home of the giant Nestle corporation, they don't market their Tollhouse Chips over here. Like the ancient mariner, it's chocolate, chocolate, everywhere; but not a drop as 'chips'. You can buy something called 'wurfel' which are teeny cubes of chocolate for baking, but it is not really good and expensive, too. Instead, you buy 50% dark chocolate bars at 60 cents for a 100g bar. Four of these, chopped up with a kitchen knife is about equal to a bag of chocolate chips.
Since I am on the subject, real vanilla extract is also hard to come by over here. You can buy whole vanilla beans easy enough, but you have to make your own extract by leaving them in a bottle of Vodka for a long time. Also unknown is brown sugar. You can find molasses in health food stores and make your own by adding it to granulated white sugar. For most recipes calling for brown sugar, I guess an amount of molasses to add to the mixing bowl first (more for dark brown sugar, less for light brown sugar) and then add white sugar to account for the rest of the weight of the sugar. Oh yeah, I got in the habit of weighing out ingredients in grams like the natives do. This is one thing I agree with over here, measurement by weight for baking is a lot more accurate and convenient than volumetric measures like I learned to do back home in the USA.
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Mike $
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Have you tried an Asian grocery? When I lived in Germany, it was the only place I could find it.
P.S. the cookie looks fantastic.
Definitely. And I don't bake by weight because none of my recipes are like that, but weight is so much more accurate and scales better.
UkingViking
Well-known member
Here in Denmark, chocolate chips are not commonly found either. They sell "vekao" chips for cooking in the supermarkeds around christmas, and you might be able to get Callebaut chips in a specialty store - but not the stuff you describe. "Vekao" is fake chokolade, where the cocoabutter had been extracted for other use and replaced with cheaper vegetable fat.
Brown Sugar is labelled "muscovado sugar", and sold expensively in small packets as a luxury product. For baking most people use fake brown sugar. White granulated beetroot sugar mixed with molasses at the sugar factory.
Vanilla extract is not common here either, recipes call for "vanilla sugar" in stead. Vanilla mixed thoroughly into powdered sugar.
aspieman456
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I like to make eggnog snickerdoodles at around Christmastime. i prefer to mix eggnog into something else, like waffles and pancakes.
peanuts56
Well-known member
I worked for 2 years in a shop at Quincy Hall while I was finishing my degree. I was there from 80-82. I did most of the baking and preparing the batters. My wife wondered why I never baked any cookies when we were first married. The recipes for the batter were huge, we had one that weighed about 75 pounds. I couldn't do the math to make a small amount of batter using the recipes. Actually had to sign a statement promising I wouldn't divulge the recipes to anyone. The shop is still in business.
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Mike $
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I made some butter pecan cookies and they were a huge hit. I can't make them so often because I eat them too fast...maybe three per day. But man they are fantastic.
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Mike $
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I mixed up half a batch of Peanut Butter Cookies today, and threw in half a cup of chocolate chips. Seems like a good idea. They're cooling now. I can't wait to devour some.
frets alot
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Mike $
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Because the flavor isn't fully developed until after it cools down. I'm not eating them to fill my belly, I'm eating them as a delicious treat, so I'll wait and enjoy them as much as possible. Same thing with bread. Wait until it cools for best flavor and sliceability. If you like it hot, heat it up later. Some breads taste best the next day, but cookies taste best the same day. That's why I bake them off a few at a time, then freeze the rest of the dough for later baking.Why wait? I never do!
