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Chocolate Chip Cookies need help!!!

post #1 of 21
7/4/06 at 1:19am
Thread Starter 
I was trying to make chocolate mud cake THREE times and all the three times it came out dead wrong. The first time it was uncooked but then again, I found out the mistakes of not using proper cooking chocolate and that the egg yellow fell into the egg white and the second time it was the egg white that collapsed and so it came out burnt and the last time, it collapsed again.

Oh btw I was using a toaster oven, which I could control the heat and the timer but not the heating aligment.

Then I tried chocolate chip cookies, which didnt cook at the top and one was cooking faster than the other and got a burnt bottom.

So I also have a Microwave/Convection Oven. So I tried it on that, surprisingly, it turned out to cook at the same speed and the top was well done butttt now the bottom was still soggy and uncooked. I feel very irritated of getting these results because I know I have done nothing wrong in the recipe so here is the recipe:

6 oz plain (all purpose flour)
1 tsp baking powder
4 1/2 oz soft margarine
3 oz light muscovado sugar
2 oz caster sugar
1/2 vanilla extract
1 egg
4 1/2 oz dark chocolate chips

I preheated oven at 190C for 15 minutes before baking. Then after putting the mixture on parchment paper which was greased with margarine, I put in the oven at the lowest level for 10 - 12 minutes at 190C.

It was still not done and I put back in and out and did that several times no matter what, the bottom was still wet and did not dry.
Another thing I'm not sure if it's normal when I went to take the cookies out from the oven, they were so soft and were starting to break easily. They did harden abit after that. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong...please help, thank you.
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post #2 of 21
7/4/06 at 9:05am

Try this recipe

It always works for me and everybody seems to LOVE them.

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are about as good as cookies get, so make several batches and watch them disappear fast.

15 minutes preparation plus chilling, 10-12 minutes baking per batch
Makes 4 dozen cookies

I 1/2cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1teaspoon ground cinnamon
1cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
%cup firmly packed light brown
sugar
1cup granulated sugar
1large egg
1teaspoon vanilla extract
1%cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 Mix together flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.
2 Beat together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3 At low speed, beat in flour mixture until blended. Fold in oats and chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap; chill for 1 hour.
4 Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 2 baking sheets.
5 Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place cookies, 2 inches apart,

on prepared baking sheets. Flatten each cookie slightly.
6 Bake cookies until lightly browned around edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool slightly. Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.
———| Baking Tips \———
Make dough ahead of time and
freeze it. Late', use defrosted
dough to make homemade
cookies in minutes.

They are so nice because I can change them a little bit to suit the taste of who is going to be easting them. My dad likes craisens instead of chocolate chips, ny husband likes nuts and raisens and I like to double the chocolate chips and add nuts. My husband also likes nutmeg instead of cinnamon. I hope that you like these.:bounce:

Kelley
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post #3 of 21
7/4/06 at 9:06am

Try this recipe

It always works for me and everybody seems to LOVE them.

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are about as good as cookies get, so make several batches and watch them disappear fast.

15 minutes preparation plus chilling, 10-12 minutes baking per batch
Makes 4 dozen cookies

I 1/2cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1teaspoon ground cinnamon
1cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
%cup firmly packed light brown
sugar
1cup granulated sugar
1large egg
1teaspoon vanilla extract
1%cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 Mix together flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.
2 Beat together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3 At low speed, beat in flour mixture until blended. Fold in oats and chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap; chill for 1 hour.
4 Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 2 baking sheets.
5 Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place cookies, 2 inches apart,

on prepared baking sheets. Flatten each cookie slightly.
6 Bake cookies until lightly browned around edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool slightly. Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.
———| Baking Tips \———
Make dough ahead of time and
freeze it. Late', use defrosted
dough to make homemade
cookies in minutes.

They are so nice because I can change them a little bit to suit the taste of who is going to be easting them. My dad likes craisens instead of chocolate chips, ny husband likes nuts and raisens and I like to double the chocolate chips and add nuts. My husband also likes nutmeg instead of cinnamon. I hope that you like these.:bounce:

Kelley
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post #4 of 21
7/4/06 at 10:20am
Thread Starter 
Hey Kelley

Thank you for your reply and recipe and suggestions but I prefer help with the current recipe because I would like to know if its the ovens fault or mine. I haven't exactly done anything on home oven that came out right.
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post #5 of 21
7/6/06 at 10:17am

OK> Try this.

Hi Vampireness,

There are just a few adjustments that you’re going to make.

1. Definitely use your convection oven and make sure that it is fully preheated befor placing the cookies inside.

2. Lower the temp to about 177C (350F)

3. Place cookies on a light colored cookie sheet. A dark surface on your bake wear will absorb the heat and burn the bottoms of what you are baking. (I learned that lesson the hard way.}

4. Reduce the time that your cookies are in the oven to 10 – 12 minutes.

I’m not a professional baker but I am a wife with a father in law that was. Believe me, his son is a difficult man to please when it comes to bakery. Let me know how things turn out.

Kelley
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post #6 of 21
7/6/06 at 11:16am
Thread Starter 
1. I am using the convection oven which is also a mircowave oven and I preheated it to 190C for 15 minutes before baking.

2. Its not getting cooked on the bottom, it's moist and its still the mixture so obviously lowering the temperature wont help, the top cooks and turns out fine. Just the bottom.

3. I use a parchment paper and that's light color. It doesn't burn, just doesnt cook the bottom.

4. I preheated oven at 190C for 15 minutes before baking. Then after putting the mixture on parchment paper which was greased with margarine, I put in the oven at the lowest level for 10 - 12 minutes at 190C. (That was what I wrote above) Thats the amount of time I cooked it for.

I tried it again this time with ungreased parchment paper but its still the same, doesnt cook on the bottom. I would like to add that in my oven when convection is on theres a fan that spins on the top and when mircowave is on, the fan doesnt spin and the noise is different....this fan got anything to do with it? I cant shut the fan off btw.
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post #7 of 21
7/6/06 at 2:41pm
Is you're dough a little loose? 6 oz. of AP floure just seems like a small amont. If your dough is loose try more flour. Maybe 12 oz. If that isn't it then I guess I'm totally clueless.
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post #8 of 21
7/6/06 at 3:09pm
The fan spins on top to move the hot air that collects at the top of the oven down to the bottom. It isn't used with the microwave because microwave doesn't heat the same way... it agitates the molecules to create the heat from within the item itself.
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post #9 of 21
7/6/06 at 4:47pm
Thread Starter 
So this is a function thats found in convection ovens and so nothing is wrong with the oven???
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post #10 of 21
7/6/06 at 4:51pm
Thread Starter 
No I don't think it's loose, yes thats what puzzles me that I've done just about everything right and my results are horrible. Also about doubling the flour that sounds abit too scary to double it and the cookies wont be as sweet and stuff, is my guess. I just wish I could bake this elsewhere in a "real" oven and see wheres the problem.....
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post #11 of 21
7/6/06 at 6:16pm
I think Kellybean might be on to something suggesting lowering the oven temperature. I know it might seem counterintuative but here's the thing, convection ovens cook faster than conventional ovens and to achieve the same results you generally will lower the temp by 25 degrees F or so to compensate for the convection effect. Since your fan is on the top and blowing hot air down, the tops of your cookies will burn before the rest is cooked through. Also, I would try moving the rack to the next level up to allow the circulating air to get under the cookie sheet to cook the bottom. Try it and see. What have you got to loose at this stage?

Just to be clear - 190C = 375F and 177C = 350F and there is your 25F difference.

Jock
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post #12 of 21
7/9/06 at 12:41pm
Hi Vampireness,

There are two things that differ between the recipe that I gave you and the recipe that you have posted. My recipe has 12 oz. of flour and 8 oz. butter (or margarine) as where yours has 6 oz. of flour and 4 ½ oz. butter (or margarine). As I said before, my cookies seem to come out awesome so if you want to give that a try I think that just may do the trick. Just one last hint: Put your cookie dough in the refrigerator for an hour or so before you roll them into a ball and bake them. That will firm up the dough and help them from getting really flat.
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post #13 of 21
7/9/06 at 2:14pm
Thread Starter 
The last time I was here I typed so much and was trying to send and had to wait forever for the page to load and send and everything disappeared so I couldn't be bothered with typing it all out again.

So in reply:

Jock - My microwave/convection oven degrees either stay at 170C or 180C, there is no option of inbetween.
Ok about what have I got to loose, I've did this about six times or so counting each batch I put in and I'm getting really tired of it. First time I did, it was the wrong oven and I just really don't wanna keep trying just about everything but all turn out wrong because I'm using the wrong oven. Plus most of the ingredients are finishing quick and muscovado sugar is not easily accessible.
I was thinking of getting a Delonghi Convection Oven so I can stop blaming the oven, but I just wonder if the cooking temperature needs to be lowered. Why is it that I can't just follow the book??? Grr...

Kelleybean - This recipe I got out of a book and I've got so many recipes and books and I just wanna atleast have one recipe turn out right. If something like the above which is not time consuming or difficult. Just adding them all together and making balls and putting them in the oven doesn't turn out fine than something as long and complicated like the recipe you gave wouldnt work for me. Things like putting it in the fridge for an hour and then defrosting it and rolling it out and stuff and furthermore I've done this recipe a million times (feels like it) and so I just know what I'm doing here, except the part when it goes into the oven. Which is why I gave up cake and decided cookie. Cake takes longer to bake and more things to be done so I don't wanna have to waste too much money nor wait too long to see how it's turn out especially when I don't know where the fault is.
Your ingredients are also very different, I just wanna be able to do something outta the book I have, I'm not in search of a perfect recipe but more in search of a solution with what I'm working with. The ingredients you got there are also alot more than the ones I wrote out and not all are easily available over here and I'm not fond of cinnamon. I'm a beginner and throwing everything together is more easier for me for now atleast.
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post #14 of 21
7/10/06 at 10:44am
On the oven temperature question, 180 is close enough to 177 I don't imagine it will make that much difference. I understand about availability of ingredients though. Maybe it's time to abandon this one for now. Next time it is convenient for you to make the cookies you can try these ideas.

Jock
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post #15 of 21
7/11/06 at 12:59pm
Are "I 1/2 cups sifted AP flour", "% cup firmly packed brown sugar", and "1% cups old fasioned rolled oats" typos, or some notation that I am not familiar with?
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post #16 of 21
7/12/06 at 2:08pm

Oops!

Hi Mrs. Butterworth,

I am so sorry about that. For some strange reason when I copied the recipe on to the notepad and pasted it the fractions got changed into symbols. The “AP” is All Purpose, it’s supposed to be ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar and 1 ½ old fashioned rolled oats. Sorry. I never noticed that things were that way. Thanks for calling my attention to that. :smiles:
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post #17 of 21
7/27/06 at 8:34am
Thread Starter 
Ok so I wanna buy an oven and well Delonghi oven temperature only goes up to 240C and some recipes call for 250C the highest, so I'm like wondering what to do?

The saleswoman said if the recipes calls for 250C, I cant do them...is that true?

Delonghi doesnt produce 250C ovens so I was given an alternative to the Rowenta brand that has 18L capacity and 250C as the highest temp.
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post #18 of 21
7/27/06 at 10:01am
Hello Vampireness,

I appreciate your persistence in trying to get a recipe to work. But it sounds like you have tried enough times to prove to yourself it's not going to work. It simply may be a bad recipe and your efforts are futile.

It certainly couldn't hurt to try a different recipe. I recommend you use a recipe where there is plenty of user feedback that you can read. This way you know that many people have successfully made the recipe so that if you follow the directions properly, you'll know if it's your appliance. Here is one, adjust temp for your convection oven as mentioned above: Mississippi Mud Cake II

Here is another:

Flourless Chocolate Cake
A VERY rich, moist cake, almost like a mousse

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (95g) light brown sugar
6 eggs
400g dark chocolate (the better the chocolate, the better the cake)
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier (or substitute with brandy, Tia Maria, Cointreau, etc)
300mL double thick cream (plus extra to serve, with some strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar if you're serving to someone to whom presentation is more important than chocolate overload)

To cook:
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F)
Lower heat to 160 C degrees for convection oven

Grease a round 23cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Break up the chocolate into small even-sized pieces (e.g. into the little squares) and put them in a heat-proof bowl. Boil a saucepan of water, and then take off the heat, and sit the bowl over the pan, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted. While the chocolate is melting, beat the brown sugar and the eggs in a bowl until creamy.

Once your eggs and sugar are beaten, and your chocolate has melted, add the egg mixture, Grand Marnier, cinnamon and chocolate to a bowl and mix together.

Stir the double thick cream very gently by hand a few times, and then fold it into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into the greased & lined tin and bake for about an hour, until a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin, and turn out onto a cake rack when cold.


What recipes specifically?
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post #19 of 21
7/27/06 at 10:35am
Thread Starter 
Mudbug - I'm looking for help on oven temperature. Not recipe adjustment, I've mentioned that before. I kinda think I know what I did wrong, asked someone else whose really good with pastry. Anywayz, I can't use this oven since it's also a mircowave and has to be shared and the mircowave is needed most of the time, so it's inconvinent.

Also I don't think you understand, nothing has came out right so doesn't matter the recipe. It's done all right outside but once it goes inside it just doesn't work out. But this a recipe that is quick, takes little time to prepare and I'm familiar with it and also because it doesn't take long at all to make.

In my cookbooks some state 250C and I've seen at cookbooks in store that state 250C so I just don't wanna be limited and not have a clue on what to do when I decide I wanna try a certain recipe.
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post #20 of 21
7/27/06 at 10:53am
Vampireness,

I understand you're looking for help with oven temperature. And you received the proper response in adjustment. If you've tried so many recipes that didn't work, then by all means, look for a new oven that will fit your needs and go up to 250C.

At the same time, you might want to make sure your oven is calibrated properly.
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post #21 of 21
7/27/06 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 
I know, I just want input from people about the temperature and if it will mean I can't make 250C recipes. Thats what I meant when I asked for help on oven temperature.
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