The Extra Step You Should Take For Perfectly Crinkled Cookies
Just when you think all of the chocolate chip cookie recipes have been exhausted, a new one takes the socials by storm. Photos of melty, chocolatey deliciousness packed into flat, crunchy shapes have forced the internet to take note — including Martha Stewart's test kitchen and The New York Times. The recipe was the brain child of Sarah Keiffer, a self-taught baker from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"The cookie falls somewhere in the middle of gooey and crispy, with edges that shatter in your mouth and a center that is soft and full of chocolate. My family loved it so much that my original recipe hasn't seen the light of day since," Keiffer wrote on her blog. The crispy cookie served has since given inspiration for an entire chapter of cookie recipes in Keiffer's cookbook "100 Cookies."
The cookies look as wrinkled as a pug's face, with baked rings of cookie extending towards the treat's crunchy exterior. But what is it about this thin, crunchy-looking cookie that has captivated so many hearts and stomachs around the world?
A more active approach to baking
Keiffer reveals the secret on her website and it's a way to unleash a bit of pent-up aggression: She encourages bakers to tap cookie pans intermittently while the cookies are baking, a technique she refers to as "pan-banging." By smacking the pan or sheet holding the baking cookies onto a hard surface (you can use a countertop, oven rack, or stove), the center of the cookie collapses and ripples form on the cookie's edges. When the cookies are taken out of the oven, the center will remain soft and the outer edge will deliver a satifying crunch — perfect for an afternoon treat or after-dinner dessert.
Keiffer suggests using a medium-weight baking pan, as heavier sheets don't "ripple" as easily (per Vanilla Bean Blog). Plus, The New York Times elaborates, chilling the cookie dough before baking, making cookie shapes larger than usual, and chopping actual chocolate to use in the recipe instead of throwing in handfuls of chocolate chips can help ensure that you, too, have cookies worthy of a status update.