Gingersnappy ChocoChip Cookies
This weekend, we decided to see if we could reproduce the American classic using ingredients obtained within walking distance of the house.
Eggs, flour, vanilla, white sugar, butter, and baking soda (I finally figured out where to find it in the store) were all pretty easy to find. The tricky parts were locating brown sugar and the chocolate chips (they can’t contain trace amounts of nuts due to Zelda’s allergies). It also turns out that the baking sheets we secured did not perform as expected.
First, the chocolate: as you can see in the picture below, Tom chopped up a chocolate bar to create his own little homemade chips. Très cute. Next, the brown sugar: I had two choices. The first was the lighter brown sugar, which was still dark compared to US sugars and also had a very strong gingerbread flavor. The second was very dark, really nearly black. It smelled and tasted more like the brown sugar we have back home. I ended up using a combination of both.
Lastly, the pans. Our “biscuit” baking sheet served reasonably well, but the cookies stuck a bit. (It didn’t help that we forgot to get a cooling rack, so we had to let them set on the pan longer than usual.) As an alternative option for baking, we thought we would try our pizza pan…which, unfortunately, turned out to be a disaster. As you can see in the picture below, the cookies congealed and the pan actually began to burn after about five minutes, emitting a foul smelling smoke in the oven. *sigh*
Anyhow, the verdict — not bad. A little gingersnappy tasting, but we could get used to that.
Our current strategy to implement Operation Chocochip is to play around a bit more with the brown sugar ratios, get a better metal spatula, and maybe find a less sticky pan. Is it a worthwhile goal to perfect chocolate chip cookies while living in Argentina using local ingredients? To be honest, I have no idea, but we’re going to keep trying anyway! (Eating the failures is half the fun!!)
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You could keep one of the oven racks out of the oven to use as a cooling rack.
Me
I did think of that, but we have only one oven rack! Oh, and I am going to bring you home a bag of the gingery sugar, it’s got a pretty cool flavor and I thought you might enjoy playing around with it. Besos!
Love it! I definitely think learning how to make tasty CCC in a foreign country is a worthy endeavor. 😉
Jennifer in Bolivia (and I just cheat, asking people to bring me choc chips and “real” brown sugar when they come!)
*laugh* Indeed Jennifer in Bolivia, CCC are a worthy endeavor! They are my stress food of choice –what’s weird, is I’m more into making them than eating them when I’m on edge. If I start making CCC, my mother always asks me if something is wrong. Anyhow, these spotted delicacies are an important tool in my coping mechanism arsenal, and therefore I really must be able to make a decent cookie here in Argentina for legitimate mental health reasons…right?