Hari Raya is just around the corner and the Hari Raya cookies are everywhere. We loved all cookies and our favorite hast to be the chocolate chip cookies.
Everyone dreams of their perfect chocolate chip cookie. For some, it's a thin, crispy cookie that almost snaps when you break it. For others, it's thick, chewy, and dense and requires a full glass of milk to go with it.
Here are some helpful lessons I learned along the way.
Use the Best Ingredients
Leave the margarine and low fat butter in the refrigerator for these cookies (and all baked goods for that matter!). Chocolate chip cookies are not the place to cut calories, and using these substitute ingredients will make a noticeable difference in both taste and texture. While run-of-the-mill chocolate chips will suffice, using the best quality chocolate you can afford will enhance the cookie quality.
Find the Right Recipe
For a thin crisp cookie, use a recipe with white sugar and bake at a slightly lower temperature than the recipe calls for. Make sure to spread these cookies far apart. For a thick and chewy cookie, find a recipe with brown sugar (which contains more moisture) and bake at a higher temperature for a shorter amount of time. When you take them out of the oven, the centers should be just slightly under baked.
Refrigerate Your Dough
Chilling your dough once it's prepared makes a huge difference in your cookie outcome. Once you've mixed all your ingredients, put the dough in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate it for a minimum of 12 hours. Ideally the dough will be chilled for 24 to 36 hours. The chilling allows the dough to fully absorb all the liquid, which enables the cookies to bake to the perfect consistency. It also produces more intense and complex flavors.
Experiment with Add-Ins
Once you've perfected your favorite recipe, it's time to start shaking things up. Substitute some of the chocolate chips with things like nuts, dried fruit, or candy. My favorite thing to do is use whatever seasonal M and M's are available for a nice bit of color in my cookies. As a finishing touch, I like to sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt on top of each cookie before it goes into the oven. The slight bit of salt adds an additional depth of flavor and plays off the chocolate nicely.
What's your favorite Hary Raya Cookies ?
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