Thin Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies, In Search of Grandma’s Cookie
My grandmother, who we called Pau Pau, was the classic iron fist in the velvet glove. She was outspoken and strong-willed, bossy, pragmatic, the protector of her family.
Not gonna lie. She was kind of scary. I see where my mom gets her strength, her willfulness, and her disciplinarian streak. When my brother and I got in trouble, it was mom we answered to, not dad, Mr. Marshmallow.
This isn’t surprising about my grandmother. After all, you have to pretty tough to be a new bride, leave your family, get on a boat (pregnant), and travel thousands of miles to a place where you don’t speak the language and nobody knows your name.
She Was a Bad Ass
It was a tough life, six kids, my grandfather working different jobs-farmer, grocery store clerk, restaurant worker, and moonshine maker. Ultimately, they settled in Chinatown and Pau Pau ran a sewing factory, all the kids pitched in and worked the factory. She employed other Chinese women struggling to make ends meet and care for their families. Her six kids grew up to serve in the military, become business owners, a chemist at Stanford, an elementary school teacher, and the first Chinese woman real estate broker in the City.
Ours is the story of the immigrant dream of America
Growing up we spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house in Chinatown. We usually migrated to the dining room while she cooked up a storm in the kitchen. In one corner of the dining room was a memorial to my grandfather complete with his picture, incense, banners to ward off spirits, and dishes of food. Food is such an integral part of life, like so many Asian parents, feeding us was her way of showing that she cared for and loved us. She cooked mainly Chinese food. Two exceptions, both sweets, were fruitcake (amazingly good, no one used her fruitcake for a doorstop) and Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Pau Pau’s Chocolate Chip Cookies were thin, crispy, and buttery. I could eat a zillion of them, I’m sure I tried. She always kept a tin of cookies on her dining table to tempt everyone that visited.
I remember watching her make cookies. She flattened each ball of dough and carefully placed 3 chocolate chips on each cookie then finished with a sprinkle finely chopped walnuts. When I asked her for the recipe she rummaged through her cabinet, pulled out a package of Nestle’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, and tossed it to me. I was incredulous, no way were her cookies the same as the Nestle’s Toll House Cookies. Years later I asked my Aunt if she had Pau Pau’s recipe, nope, but she did recall Grandma would melt chicken fat if she didn’t have enough butter.
So armed with bits and pieces of info, I set out to replicate those darn cookies. I found a recipe on Serious Eats by Stella Parks for “Thin, Crispy CCC, just like Tate’s (never had em). They were buttery, caramelized, sweet, but only the very edges were crispy while the center was a bit chewy. Not the cookies of my childhood. Disappointed I threw the cookies in a Tupperware and left them on the table.
My kids inhaled them. In fact, my nieces, my moms’ coffee group (which met practicing COVID guidelines) loved these cookies. It’s all about expectations. I wanted crisp, buttery, light, and just a couple of chips just like Grandma’s.
But if I didn’t compare these to the cookies of my childhood, they’re really darn good. The best analogy, thanks to my kid is as follows. It’s like you’re going crazy looking for your lost keys…and you find your lost wallet. Yay! But damn it, you still haven’t found your keys.
Here are my notes and the recipe for Stella Park’s Thin, Crispy, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Make them soon.
The recipe calls for a moderate protein flour like Gold Medal AP Flour. Do not use King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill both of which have a higher protein content. It will throw off the texture and the spread. Stella’s recipes are tested with Gold Medal, readily available, and easy to find, that is unless there is a pandemic. I tried these with White Lily, a low protein Southern flour. The cookies were soft and barely held their shape. My kids liked them (lifetime members of the ooey-gooey cookie club), I thought they were too soft. I used GM for the second batch, the extra protein provided needed structure and crispness, a winner.
Make the dough in a food processor which Stella says is key. Place dry ingredients into the processor and whirl to combine.
Pulse butter into the dry mix until crumbly, add chips, and process 1-2 short pulses. Pour the dough into a bowl and add egg and vanilla, knead until it comes together. Put the soft dough in the fridge to firm it up so it is easier to scoop. With a tablespoon scoop, I measured out over 60 cookies, more than the expected yield. The cookies took 10-11 minutes to bake to a deep rich caramel brown.
The search continues for Grandma’s cookies but I will gladly make another batch of these.
Thin Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 ounces med protein all-purpose flour such as Gold Medal blue label or Whole Foods 365 blue label (about 1 3/4 cup, spooned; 225g)
- 8 ounces light brown sugar not dark brown (about 1 cup, firmly packed; 225g)
- 3 1/2 ounces raw cane sugar not white (about 1/2 cup; 100g)
- 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt; 8g or table salt, use about half as much by volume or the same weight
- 1 1/2 teaspoons 8g baking soda 8g
- 8 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch chunks (about 16 tablespoons; 225g)
- 8 ounces assorted chocolate chips preferably no darker than 70%, see note (about 1 1/3 cups; 225g)
- 1 large egg straight from the fridge, well beaten (1 3/4 ounces; 50g)
- 1/2 ounce vanilla extract about 1 tablespoon; 15g
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, light brown sugar, raw cane sugar, salt, and baking soda. Process until well-combined; add cold butter and pulse to form a dry and powdery mix; comparable results cannot be produced by hand or with a stand mixer. Add chocolate chips and pulse once or twice to combine.* Chill to make it easier to handle dough.
- Transfer the cookie "mix" to a large bowl; add egg and vanilla, stir well; the mixture will seem alarmingly crumbly and dry at this stage. Once the wet ingredients have been absorbed, knead mixture by hand until it comes together like classic soft dough.
- Divide into about 56 portions with a 1-tablespoon scoop. If you like, these can be transferred to a zipper-lock bag and refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months; soften to about 68°F (20°C) before baking.
- Arrange portions on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan (do not use a silicone mat), leaving about 2 or 3 inches between cookies to account for spread. Bake until thin and golden brown, with an even color from edge to center, about 16 minutes (check earlier). I used a tablespoon scoop, yield over 60 cookies that took 10-11 minutes to bake.
- Cool cookies directly on the baking sheet until room temperature. Transfer to an airtight container and continue cooling an hour more; the cookies will not be fully crisped until then. At cool room temperature, the cookies will keep at least six weeks in an airtight container.