Refrigerating Cookie Dough
I just read the article in today's NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/din... that discusses the benefits of refrigerating chocolate chip cookie dough. I've tried this before but have found the dough so hard that it was virtually unscoopable. Perhaps it was the cold dough or perhaps it was Alice Medrich's method of melting the butter and sugar rather than creaming them that yielded cement.
I don't want to scoop the dough as soon as I mix it because I think doing so would yield too much surface area and affect the dryness levels that are given so much attention in the article. Does anyone have tricks for scooping cold dough?
Velda Mae
Jul 09, 2008 04:32AM
I thought that article was fascinating - I always use the Toll House recipe, and wonder why they omitted that tip from it. You could do what I do when I freeze dough - roll it up into a cylinder using wax paper, then slice the cookies the next day.
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I don't think it's the melted butter that causes the cement because I've had the problem w/ room temp butter, too. Have you tried letting the dough sit at room temperature for an hour or so? I thought the article was interesting, too. I'll have to give it a try, though I'm unsure if cookie dough would last 36 hours in my house. They also didn't say anything about frozen cookie dough--I haven't noticed that frozen dough cookies end up better than baking fresh but I'm guessing it doesn't allow the flour and butter to coat and flavors to meld as the refrigerator would. I'm also wondering if room temperature for less time might yield the same results.
I'm editing this because I do remember keeping cookie dough in the refrigerator for that long the last time I made a double batch of CI's thick and chewy cookies. They also have a melted butter base. It wasn't hard to scoop it but the dough is softer than other chocolate chip cookie doughs. They were very good a couple of days later but I made them in the panini press. I thought the flavor difference was due to the press and not that they had a chance to meld.
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