As you may remember, I was refrigerating a portion of the dough from this recipe to do my own refrigeration test on it, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. I believe that letting the dough rest in the refrigerator for 36 hours is recommended, but I decided to bake them about 6 hours earlier!
I lowered the oven temperature to 350F, instead of 375F, and also needed to bake them about 3-4 minutes longer. What I first noticed about the cookies that had been refrigerated is that they actually stayed puffier, even after cooling.
At first, I thought the taste result would be inconclusive. But, I had eaten a semi-warm cookie (I personally think that these cookies taste better when they are at room temperature). I waited until they had cooled down to room temperature and I did a side-by-side comparison test with the non-refrigerated cookies. I personally thought that the taste of the cookies that had been refrigerated was richer and deeper and even more of that browned butter taste came through. They were also a bit chewier, and of course, puffier than the dough that had not been refrigerated.
In the end I decided that the refrigerated cookie dough cookies were slightly better than the non-refrigerated ones. It wasn’t a huge difference, and I don’t think I could wait that long to bake the chocolate chip cookies each time I made up the dough. I wouldn’t even have noticed a difference, I don’t think, if I hadn’t eaten them side-by-side.
I can tell you with certainty, however, that this new Cook’s Illustrated recipe for Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies will now be my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe.
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