(light music)
- This episode is sponsored by Rocket Mortgage. I've made a lot of meals
in apartment kitchens over the years, but thanks
to you guys watching along at home I've been able to
buy the place of my dreams. And that includes this
awesome studio kitchen. Like any big change,
there's always a few steps you need to take to set things in motion. I chatted about my path to this point on Rocket Mortgage's new show, Big Change, and you can check it out at the link in the video description. Let's get down to basics. (upbeat music) (light music) All right, so the first thing
cookies need is a dough. So we're gonna make a
sort of master dough, one that with a bit of
tweaking should be able to yield four different kinds of cookies or biscuits as they are
sometimes incorrectly called. I'm just kidding, just kidding. First things first, in
most cookie contexts, you're going to get a lot of mileage out of browning your butter. You can do this by cooking your butter over medium heat stirring constantly for about five minutes until
the milk proteins separate into little bits and begin to
turn a lovely toasty brown. At this point, to prevent it from burning, we want to get it out of
the hot pan right away. And just to be safe you could
throw a couple ice cubes in there if you want. Then you're going to want to cover it and let it solidify
overnight in the fridge. For this recipe, it's
imperative that every element of the cookie dough is
as cold as possible. And since butter gets rather
sturdy when it's cold, really the only way to make this recipe is with a stand mixer or a
very powerful hand mixer. We're starting with eight
ounces of unsalted butter, 6 1/2 ounces if you browned it beforehand because it tends to lose
moisture in the cooking process. We're going to soften it up a little bit with the paddle attachment
of our stand mixer before adding 4 1/2 ounces
of granulated sugar, and 9 3/4 ounces of light brown sugar. Then we're creaming those together on high speed for about three minutes until the mixture
becomes light and fluffy. Scrape off the paddle and
down the sides of the bowl. And then we can get to adding our eggs. Two large eggs, added one at a time while the mixer is running on medium speed making sure that each
egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down the paddle and the
sides of the bowl once again. And then it's time to introduce our dry ingredients to the party. In a separate bowl, we are
combining 11 1/2 ounces of all purpose flour, a
tablespoon of kosher salt, and a half teaspoon of baking soda. Tiny whisk until thoroughly combined, dump into the stand mixer
and mix until just mixed. That is the flour is fully hydrated and no dry patches remain. And there you have it. Our base, basic, baseline all dough and no cookie cookie dough. And this is where we begin chapter one of your choose your own
adventure cookie novel. Sure, this would be perfect
for good old fashioned chocolate chip and Walnut, but why not start things
off by going a little crazy? Here, I've got some of the kettle corn from earlier this week
which I'm gonna chop up into even more bite size bite size pieces, toss them in there with that. And now how about some
nice chopped up pretzels. Just gonna eyeball on all this along with a handful of butterscotch chips, maybe a spirited sprinkling of M&M's, and what the hell I'm feeling frisky, how about some chopped up,
bite size Butterfingers. Really you can put
anything you want in here, but at the end of the day, you want to add 12 ounces of toppings all told. Massage those toppings into the dough as minimally as possible. You don't want to build them gluten and ended up with tough cookies. Then cover and refrigerate
for at least one hour and up to three days. In fact, the longer the better. Three days in the fridge
is gonna help sort of dry age your cookie dough and give it some really
subtle, delicious flavor. As you can see, I'm doling them out using a small ice cream scoop onto
a parchment lined baking sheet and baking on the middle rack
at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating
halfway through baking and really starting to
check after like 15 minutes. No two ovens are alike and this might take a couple
batches to get perfect. Once you've let these cool on the tray for about five minutes and
are able to rotate them freely without them falling
apart, transfer them onto a wire rack where you can
allow them to cool completely. If you can control yourself. In the meantime why don't we try a slightly more elegant combination? I got four ounces of macadamia nuts that I'm gonna toast at
375 for five, 10 minutes until they're just
starting to become toasty. Let those cool completely
before chopping them up and adding them to your base batter. Then I'm generally not such
a big fan of white chocolate but it works beautifully in this recipe. I got four ounces worth that I'm gonna chop up into bite sizes. Then I got myself two
ounces of dried unsweetened cranberries and two ounces
of dried sweetened coconut. Can I get that all mashed up in there. Make sure you refrigerate
completely before baking. At least one hour,
ideally up to three days. And scoop out and bake as
before 375, for 18, 20 minutes, middle rack, rotating halfway through, and let them cool for about
five minutes on the sheet tray until you can twist them
freely without breaking them. Then go ahead and transfer
them to a wire rack. And there you have it. White chocolate macadamia nut
cranberry coconut cookies. Now you might be saying to yourself, "Babs where's the chocolate?" Well, I got your chocolate right here. We're gonna prepare our
dough the exact same way up to the point of adding
the dry ingredients. Then we're subbing four
ounces of the flour for high quality Dutch
process cocoa powder. So that's 7 1/2 ounces of all purpose, four ounces of cocoa
powder and the same old half teaspoon of baking
soda and tablespoon of salt. We're also gonna add one teaspoon of instant espresso powder. This isn't enough to make
it taste like coffee. It's just gonna make an extra chocolatey. Tiny whisk until homogenous
and then carry on as before. Add the dry stuff, mix on medium-low until just incorporated
and there you have it, a single tweak rich chocolate
version of our cookie dough. Now all it needs is
some delicious fillings. How about a coffee toffee cookie or as Jess likes to
call it the portmanteau. First we're gonna add 12 chopped up ounces of your favorite chocolate
covered toffee bar, and an additional one to two teaspoons of that instant espresso powder. This will make it taste
a little like coffee. Mix everybody up, cover,
fridge and bake as before. Now chocolate cookies are a
little bit more challenging because due to their color it's harder to tell when they're done. In fact, you might want to make a batch of their blondie brethren
before even attempting these so you know how your oven behaves and when to pull the damn things out. Same deal, let them cool in
the pan for about five minutes until you can twist them
without breaking them apart. Transfer to a rack and let
cool completely if you can. And now you might be saying "Babs, that's still not
enough chocolate for me." Well then folks, I think it's
time that we went all the way. Triple chocolate. Six ounces of high quality chocolate chips and six ounces of freshly
chopped high quality chocolate into a batch of chocolate cookie dough. And maybe think about chocolate while you're mixing it all together. Cover, fridge, bake, batch batch. There you have it folks. The very chocolatiest
cookies in all the land. We've talked a lot about
how these cookies are made but how do they look, feel, and taste? Well, they've got a
lightly crunchy exterior and a dense chewy interior. They're well proportioned and
filled with delicious stuff. And just a picture perfect
portrait of everything I love most about cookies. And we've managed to
make four different kinds of cookies with pretty
much the same base dough. They're best eaten within two
days and freeze beautifully if you can even keep them that long. I know it sounds like
a joke, but it's not. These barely lasted 48 hours. Thanks again to Rocket Mortgage
for sponsoring this episode. Like I mentioned earlier, I was part of their new show on
YouTube called Big Change where I talk about the
crazy journey it's been from making this show in a
number of different kitchens to now where I get to work
in this studio every day. And that's thanks to you guys. Head to the link in the video description to watch the episode on the
Rocket Learn YouTube channel.
I gotta say this video is VERY similar to the basics chocolate chip cookies just with other stuff mixed in....
Never let her go, Babish.
I LITERALLY just made the shittiest cookies of my life last night, of course Babish does an episode the next day 😂
I got so excited with the notification that said "Cookie Dough" and thought it was going to be safe-to-eat raw cookie dough, my hopes have been dashed XD
That being said, these look absolutely incredible!
curious that he did not break up the dough balls inside out
Cookies look delicious but I allllways exclude the espresso powder. I tried it once and maybe I'm just super repulsed by anything coffee-flavored but I do taste it and it's very off-putting. Can't eat tiramisu.
Okay I can't wait to try all of these!