We’ve recently become a little obsessed with the idea of “hacking” non-electronic, everyday things. For example there are these guys who hacked the McDonald’s Menu, the well-known Starbucks iced latte hack (the ghetto latte), and now, with blazing turnaround time, the chocolate chip cookie hack.
You probably read the New York Times article last week that included advice to let chocolate chip cookie dough sit for 36 hours to fully absorb the liquid from the eggs. But who has 36 hours? Ridiculous. We want cookies now!
Well, Ideas In Food came to the rescue quickly with this handy hack of writer David Leite’s painstaking findings: If you vacuum seal the cookie dough, it only takes about three hours for the liquid to absorb thoroughly enough to make those same perfect chocolate chip cookies.
What I can tell you is that the dough darkened and VacuumSealedDough became fully saturated, similar to the way that the dough usually looks after a couple of days in the refrigerator. It also changed the texture of the dough, making it a bit more elastic to the touch. The just made dough was too soft to shape and needed to chill, so I left in the fridge for about three hours before baking.
The resulting cookies were pretty damn good. They had a slightly cakey texture in the center with chewy yet crisp edges and rich buttery, caramel flavors. It was impossible to eat just one and I was thankful that I had not baked off the entire batch. Were they better than David Leite’s? I really couldn’t say. On the other hand I think it was clear that vacuum sealing did have a positive effect on the process, and from now on plastic wrap is out and vacuum bags are definitely in.
Ha! easy enough to at least get an approximation in three hours. Now all we need is a vacuum sealer. What’s the hack for getting ahold of that? Oh, right, it’s called shoplifting.
Vacuum Sealed Cookie Dough [Ideas In Food]
Perfection? Hint: It’s Warm and Has a Secret
HOWTO trick McDonald’s into serving you “breakfast” at lunchtime and vice-versa [Boing Boing]
How to hack Starbucks [Slate]
[Photo: Chocolate chip cookie pie via Bakerella/flickr]
