Chocolate Chip Cookies
By now, I’m sure many people have seen the show on the Epicurious YouTube channel, 4 Levels of Cooking, Where an amateur cook (Level 1), a home cook (Level 2), and a professional chef (Level 3) come in and make their version of various food, then a food scientist (Level 4) comes in to review their work and describe in detail what makes each version of the dish unique.
Across the 6 years that the show has been on, we’ve seen a lot of great looking dishes and recipes from dozens of different chefs, but have you ever seen those videos and wondered what those recipes taste like? Is the level 3 dish really that much better than the Level 1 or 2? Which dish is worth making? That is what I’m going to find out.
Today, I will be going all the way back to September 17, 2018, to where it all began, to the very first episode of 4 Levels of Cooking which centered around a childhood classic that’s been around for over 2 centuries, the chocolate chip cookie. It is hard not to love a soft, thick, chewy cookie that’s loaded with chocolate bits that brings you back to a simpler time when you didn’t have to worry about paying rent or getting a job.
The episode titled 4 Levels of Chocolate Chip Cookies brought in Elina, a Level 1 chef, Lorenzo, a Level 2 chef, and Penny, a professional pastry chef who, at the time of the episode, had been professionally baking for 14 years.
Each of these three chefs were tasked with making their version of chocolate chip cookies step by step, then have a food scientist, Rose Trout, review their work.
Chocolate chip cookies really have become an icon, especially among American children, and just might be the most popular cookie out there. However, in the 200 years that they’ve been around, chocolate chip cookies seem to have evolved and taken on many variations, some of which go beyond the original Toll House recipe.
Today, I will be making all 3 recipes as shown in the video exactly how each chef prepared it and will taste all 3 cookies to see which one I like best. Before I do that, however, I think it’s important to break down each recipe to see what makes the cookies these three chefs made different and unique.
The Dry Ingredients
The standard dry ingredients for chocolate chip cookies are all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. The first of which provides structure to help the cookies hold their shape, the next to make the cookies puff up in the oven to make them fluffy and delicious, and the later to enhance chocolate flavor and balance out the sweetness.
However, the way you measure your dry ingredients, especially flour, can have a big impact on the final texture of your cookies. Flour has a tendency to compact in measuring cups, and so you might end up adding more flour than you think, leading to a drier, denser cookie.
In the video, Elina pretty much just scooped up the flour and tamped it down with the back of a large spoon, this, as mentioned above, compacts the flour a bit and can lead to an inaccurate measurement.
Lorenzo did what’s known as the scoop-and-sweep method, by scooping up a mound of flour a measuring spoon then using a flat tool like a spatula to level off the top. As far as measuring with cups goes, it’s the most accurate you can get.
Penny used a digital kitchen scale and measured her flour, and other ingredients, by weight. Weight measurement is by far the most accurate way you can measure flour as it ensures a consistent product, a crucial step if you work in a retail bakery.
Penny also used a few notable ingredients like baking powder to help her get a thicker cookie as well as using sea salt instead of kosher salt as sea salt has some impurities on it that help enhance the flavor of her cookies.
Wet Ingredients
Recipes can vary, but for the most part the wet ingredients you’ll find in a chocolate chip cookie are fat, sugar (Yes, in baking sugar is a wet ingredient as it melts when heated by itself, vs flour which would stay dry), eggs, and a bit of vanilla to enhance the flavor of the chocolate.
All 3 chefs seemed to be in agreement of using both white and brown sugars, the combination helps to add sweetness while also making the cookies soft and chewy, and while all 3 chefs chose butter as their fat because…well, butter is it’s own reason, but what they did to the butter is where some differences started popping up.
Elina melted her butter in the microwave slightly before adding in her other wet ingredients.
Lorenzo used softened butter.
Penny also melted her butter, but took it another step by smoking her butter. She wrapped up a pan with her butter very tightly with plastic wrap, then used a smoking gun to impart a savory, smoky flavor into her cookies. She also sprinkled some smoked sea salt on top of her cookies before baking.
(Whether or not I actually want the taste of smoke in my cookies, we shall soon see.)
There are few other notable differences between Penny’s recipe and the other two. Penny used a fresh vanilla bean as opposed to vanilla extract to offer a more fresh vanilla flavor in her cookies. Also, where Elina and Lorenzo used only whole eggs in their dough, Penny added in a whole egg plus an egg yolk for added richness.
Mixing
It really is fascinating to me how something as seemingly simple as how you mix and incorporate the ingredients for cookie dough or just about any baked good can have such a grand variety.
Elina stirred her slightly melted butter into her sugar and eggs, then poured that into her flour mixture. While this method can certainly combine the ingredients evenly, having the butter at a semi-liquid state before it even goes into the oven can cause the cookies to spread a bit more and can, at times, lead to a somewhat greasy cookie.
Lorenzo used an electric stand mixer to beat his soft butter and sugar together before mixing in his eggs and then the flour mixture. Beating the butter at this solid state will mean that it will melt a bit in the oven and release some of it’s water to create a bit of steam and help make for a soft, lighter cookie.
Penny had somewhat of a hybrid method from the other two in that she also melted (and smoked) her butter then mixed that with a stand mixer. However, it seems like she made up for the fact that she used melted butter by freezing her cookie dough for 24 hours, as opposed to Elina and Lorenzo who rolled and baked their cookies soon after mixing.
Freezing the cookies for this long allows the flavors to develop and meld, so you get a more complex flavored cookie.
The Chocolate
Let’s face it, the star of a chocolate chip cookie really is the chocolate while the cookie itself is a solid vessel to lift lots of chocolate chips to your mouth.
Elina used classic semi-sweet chocolate chips, it’s what many of us know and love.
Lorenzo also used chocolate chips, but took it a step further by also chopping up a bar of bittersweet chocolate and adding that in as well, offering a variety of chocolate flavors.
Penny, being the pro that she is, used a 74% couverture chocolate discs which, in short terms, is a really high end chocolate. The larger discs break up as she mixes the chocolate into the cookies, so you get shards of chocolate throughout the cookie.
Assembly
You could have a really great cookie dough, but how you portion and roll your cookies can have an impact on whether or not they bake evenly.
Elina used a spoon to scoop out small portions of dough and line those on her baking sheet, the dough wasn’t very uniformly shaped and came out in inconsistent sizes.
Both Lorenzo and Penny used a 4-ounce ice cream scoop to dish out their cookie portions, it’s great because each cookie will be the same size and shape, and therefore all of their cookies will bake evenly.
Baking
Finally, the time has come for our chefs to bake their cookies and see if their hard work has paid off. All 3 chefs seemed to be in agreement to bake their cookies at 375 degrees Fahrenheit (Although in the video, Penny did say 275 degrees but I think she misspoke), but given the different thicknesses of their cookies, the baking time did vary.
Elina baked her cookies for 9-11 minutes, Lorenzo at 11-13 minutes, and Penny kept hers in for 25 to 28 minutes. 25 to 28 minutes might seem like a long time, but keep in mind that Penny froze her cookie dough for 24 hours so that colder temperature will mean a longer bake time.
Ok, finally, I can stop talking and start making some cookies! As I said, I will be making all 3 of their recipes exactly how Elina, Lorenzo and Penny made them in the video. I will also be sharing their recipes in case you wanted to try making them yourself.
I should point out that there were no written recipes for any of the 4 Levels of Cooking episodes, so my measurements will be based on what I saw them use in the video. Let’s do this!
Level 1 Chocolate Chip Cookies (Elina’s recipe)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
-Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
-Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl, then set aside.
-Put the butter into a large microwave safe bowl, then pop in the microwave and let it run until the butter is half-melted. Add the brown sugar, sugar, eggs, and vanilla, then stir to combine. Add this to the flour mixture, then stir with a spatula until a smooth dough forms, then add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
-Use a spoon to scoop out small portions of dough and line that on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them apart by an inch. Bake the cookies for 9-11 minutes, or until browned and the edges start to firm up, then cool on a wire rack.
Level 2 Chocolate Chip Cookies (Lorenzo’s recipe)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 bar (4oz) bittersweet chocolate, broken up/chopped into chunks
-Just like with the first recipe, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
-Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl, then set aside.
-In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the soft butter with both sugars on medium speed until the mixture is slightly pale and light. Add the eggs, one at a time and beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla and the flour mixture. Add both forms of chocolate, then beat to combine.
-Using a 4-ounce ice cream scoop, scoop up mounds of dough and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, being sure to space them apart by about 2 inches. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown and the edges are firm, then cool on a wire rack.
Level 3 Chocolate Chip Cookies (Penny’s recipe)
6 oz unsalted butter, melted
11 ounces flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 oz brown sugar
4 oz sugar
1 fresh vanilla bean, split open and seeds scraped out
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
8 oz dark couverture chocolate discs
Smoked sea salt, for topping
Special equipment: Smoking gun plus small wood pellets
-Place the butter into a wide pan or container, then thoroughly wrap in about 4 layers of plastic wrap. Poke a small hole in the top of the plastic wrap, then insert the tip of your smoking gun in the hole. Fill the top part of the smoking gun with wood pellets, then light that with a candle lighter and let the butter smoke for 10 minutes.
(If you’re too afraid to mess with a smoking gun, then you can also add 2 or 3 drops of liquid smoke)
-Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt in a bowl, then set aside.
-In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine your smoked butter with both sugars and beat with medium-low speed, until combined and the color starts to lighten, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk and seeds from the vanilla bean, then beat until combined. Add the flour mixture, then beat on low until a smooth dough forms. Add the chocolate, and beat for another 2 minutes, or until the chocolate breaks up a bit.
-Use a 4-ounce ice cream scoop to divide your dough into individual portions, then set your cookie dough into the freezer for at least 24 hours.
-The next day, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and take your cookie dough out of the freezer to let it warm up a bit. Once the oven is hot, sprinkle the top of the cookies with smoked sea salt, then bake for 25-28 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and are starting to set on the edges while the center is still soft.
Ok, all of the cookies have been made and baked, so it’s time to determine a winner.
The level 1 cookies weren’t very uniform in size or shape and were quite thin. The texture was a bit crunchy, which is fine if a crispier cookie is what you like, but the taste was good.
The level 2 cookies were certainly more uniform and a bit softer than the first ones, also the flavor of the bittersweet chocolate came through very nicely.
The chocolate in the level 3 cookies was insane, if this was based on chocolate alone then these cookies would win no doubt. The cookies were thicker and softer, and the flavor of the smoke did come through, it tasted a bit like a toasty marshmallow.
In the end, I think I liked the level 2 chocolate chip cookies the best, because the level 1s were a bit too crispy for my liking and I don’t see myself smoking butter again anytime soon.
