Chocolate chip chocolate chip cookie dough cookies.

November 24, 2008 7:59 AM

When asked for dessert recommendations, my friend’s 8-year-old son suggested “chocolate chip cookies with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough in them.” How on earth can I pull off this fantastic treat?

The problem, of course, is that cookie dough bakes and turns into cookie. So adding the cookie dough before baking the cookies would be out of the question, unless there were some sort of magical cookie dough recipe that retains its doughiness in the oven.

Or is freezing little balls of dough a possibility?

Undercooking the cookies to retain a doughy middle, although delicious, so often results in a structurally unsound cookie and a mass of stuck-together cookie glop in the cookie jar. So that’s not really an option either.

The best solution I’ve come up with so far is adding the dough after baking – perhaps plopping little clumps on right as they come out of the oven, or spreading dough on top like frosting, or sandwiching the dough between two cookies.

I’m wondering if anyone more knowledgeable in cookie-chemistry has any better ideas.

Additionally, if anyone has a good recipe for eggless cookie dough that is safe and delicious to eat raw, I’d appreciate that as well!

posted by Metroid Baby to food & drink (40 comments total)

Why not make cookies with holes in the middle, then fill that hole with uncooked cookie dough, like some kind of biscuity doughnut?
posted by Happy Dave at 8:03 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

I think I'd try freezing the little balls of dough. Other than that, I'm at a loss as to how you'd pull it off.

I've never tried them in cookie dough, but could you use pasteurized eggs in place of regular eggs? I live on the wild side and eat raw cookie dough with eggs, and so do my kids (just for the record, we don't eat tons of it. Just a few bites before the cookies are baked), but I would think the pasteurized eggs would be the solution to the "don't eat raw cookie dough!!" dilemma.
posted by cooker girl at 8:06 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Ooh, that cookie dough sandwich sounds really promising. My concern would be having the dough melt out or start getting messy but that could be avoided by cooling the cookies before assembling and keeping the dough (and possibly finished cookie sandwiches) in the fridge. I would make extra-thin cookies to combat the largeness of a cookie sandwich, lower the heat a bit and watch carefully to avoid burned bottoms. Let us know how it turns out, whatever approach you take!
posted by Meagan at 8:08 AM on November 24, 2008

I like the freezing idea. Maybe try freezing tiny balls of dough and then stick them in larger non-frozen balls of dough. Bake for 10 minutes. Of course, timing will be a huge issue.
posted by lunasol at 8:09 AM on November 24, 2008

Okay, this would REALLY, REALLY be gilding the lily here, but it could work --

1. Make tiny balls of cookie dough.
2. Freeze the balls.
3. Then -- DIP THEM IN CHOCOLATE.
4. Pop them all back in the freezer again.
5. Use those chocolate-covered cookie dough balls AS the chocolate chips, and proceed with the recipe.

Fhe freezing would keep them from baking, but being covered in chocolate would probably provide an extra layer of protection.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:15 AM on November 24, 2008 [16 favorites]

With a cold enough freezer, you might be able to do it. I suggest making a cookie "dough" but loading it with extra egg yolk, butter and brown sugar. These ingredients will help keep the dough nuggets soft after baking... There are other chemical additives that could also accomplish this feat.

Freeze the nuggets rock solid (-20°F). Size them relatively to the dimensions of the final cookie so that they are as large as possible without being intrusive to the integrity of the final cookie product. The size is important because cookies bake from the outside in, large nuggets will help maintain your desired pseudo-rawness. Also, if possible, make the mother cookie dough (that is, the cookie dough that the frozen nuggets will be mixed into) a bit warmer than room temperature... This will make the cookies bake much faster than normal, again, helping the nuggets stay raw.

Being a baker myself, I am intrigued. Let me know how this turns out.
posted by sindas at 8:24 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

I vote for the sandwiches, especially if the cookies on the outside are really thin and crispy for contrast. Man, that would be tasty.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:24 AM on November 24, 2008

I use "Egg Beaters" in recipes all the time. They're pasturized and I don't notice any difference in the finished product....baked or unbaked. (I am an unreformed dough-eater and bowl-licker.)

You must let us know if you get this to work!
posted by JoanArkham at 8:27 AM on November 24, 2008

Can you get your hands on some liquid nitrogen?

This sounds like a product of a molecular gastronome. That kid might have a future.

Barring the use of liquid nitrogen, I don't think you are going to be able to get the dough balls cold enough to remain uncooked.
I like the sandwich suggestion.
posted by Seamus at 8:31 AM on November 24, 2008

Egg-free chocolate chip cookie recipe (and super simple, too!): recipezaar.com


Ingredients

* 1 (14 ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
* 3/4 cup reduced-fat peanut butter
* 1 2/3 cups Bisquick
* 7 1/2 ounces chocolate chips
* 3/8 cup sugar

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix the first two ingredients.
3. Add the Bisquick and chocolate chips. If the dough is very sticky, add a little more Bisquick.
4. Roll the dough into balls.
5. Roll the balls in sugar.
6. Place the balls on a baking sheet and flatten them with a fork.
7. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes. They should be light brown when they are finished.


I've made a version of these cookies, and they came out great! In my recipe, you add 1/2 tsp vanilla and omit the sugar. Also, go crazy and use REAL sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter, instead of the fat-free crap. The peanut butter acts as more of a fat/oil than as a flavor addition. You can't really taste the peanut butter unless you are looking for it.
posted by kidsleepy at 8:38 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Just so you know, it is absolutely imperative that you update us all with the results of your attempts.
posted by paisley henosis at 8:45 AM on November 24, 2008 [8 favorites]

I've had chocolate dipped cookie dough candy at the movie theater. They weren't the greatest bits of candy, but with all the preservatives/what-not, they might not 'bake' when baked.

Of course, any homemade concoction might just be better.
posted by wg at 8:53 AM on November 24, 2008

If the cookie-shaped endeavors fail, you could try baking cookie dough in one of these mini-bundt pans, then put a plug of uncooked dough in the center. Warm it a bit and it would (hopefully) turn out like those molten lava cakes.

Or you could undercook some dough in muffin tins. This might be more structurally sound than an undercooked cookie, but the middle would still be raw. I've never done either of these things but I'd love to see someone else do it!
posted by peep at 8:53 AM on November 24, 2008

I think the sandwich/hole in the cookie idea is the best avenue to try to get the combo of baked/raw you're seeking.

As for worries about raw egg in the raw dough part, just go vegan for at least the raw dough. Here is a recipe for a pretty good vegan version, but there are many, many more out there to try.
posted by hecho de la basura at 8:54 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

If you're doing the freeze-and-dip-in-chocolate method (which sounds awesome) make sure to leave out the leavening from that part of the dough. Otherwise the little balls might exploooode!
posted by exceptinsects at 9:05 AM on November 24, 2008

Because I'm serious about all things chocolate chip cookie, I contacted the Washington Post's Joseph Yonan. He replied with an interesting reverse suggestion: "Well, since the cookies are cooked but the dough is not, I don't see how you could get the uncooked dough inside the cooked dough. But you could do the reverse, sort of: You could bake cookies, break them into big chunks and fold them into uncooked dough. "
posted by cashman at 9:22 AM on November 24, 2008 [4 favorites]

What about chocolate-chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, where the ice cream has cookie-dough chunks in it?

and then dipped in chocolate?
posted by jquinby at 9:24 AM on November 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

A few notes. If you try the freezing method, it will take a good 24 hours to thoroughly freeze the dough in a typical freezer.

My suggestion would be to buy some dry ice, which is often available at grocery stores. If you can't find any at a grocery store, try calling sporting goods stores and ask them where hunters get their dry ice in the area. The dry ice will let you freeze the cookie dough much, much colder. Just break the dry ice up into pieces, place the pieces into a well-insulated cooler, and bury the (wrapped) cookie dough in it. (NB: Dry ice is very, very cold. Use serious gloves and long sleeves when handling it). You will want the dough already shaped into small balls. Once it is frozen hard it will be very difficult to scoop.

If you're very adventurous, you could try liquid nitrogen. Look for a welding supply shop. They'll either have some or know a place that does. My concern with liquid nitrogen is that it may cool the dough so much that it inhibits the rest of the dough from baking.

Use pasteurized eggs for the dough. This will eliminate the risk of salmonella. Don't worry about vegan or egg-free recipes. If your grocery store doesn't carry pasteurized eggs, you can make your own. Alternatively, Egg Beaters will work. I would suggest the 'plus a bit of yolk' variety for better taste and texture.
posted by jedicus at 9:38 AM on November 24, 2008

I believe the perfect solution would be to make them like thumbprint cookies. Make the regular chocolate chip cookies small, squish an indentation in the center with your thumb, bake, then put a dollop of cookie dough in the center. This would be decorative (especially if you make the cookie part a chocolate-chocolate-chip cookie and the cookie dough part regular chocolate chip), it would yield the ideal cookie to cookie dough ratio, and the cookie dough part would be guaranteed to have the texture you're expecting. Plus, it's easy.
posted by HotToddy at 10:01 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

This shouldn't be too tough, actually. Bake normal c.chip cookies as usual. Remove from the oven & let cool about 5 minutes (enough so they don't fall apart but they're still pliable). Using a wide drinking straw (like you get with a shake at McDonald's) or other implement with a small opening, poke holes in the warm cookies. Not too many holes - you don't want to weaken the structure too much. Refrigerate the cookies till totally cold, so they are firmer. Finally, when the cookies are cold, use your fingers or a butterknife to smoosh globs of uncooked dough into the holes. Wah-la! Cookie-dough chocolate-chip cookies!
posted by cuddles.mcsnuggy at 10:14 AM on November 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

The way that I'd do this is by changing how the cookies are cooked. I'd freeze regular dough (as cold as possible), and mix up another batch of a much looser dough, closer to a batter. I'd then grease a skillet and use a low heat to cook 'em, adding the frozen dough in chunks.

Either that, or I'd try to get the liquid nitrogen and see what I could do.
posted by klangklangston at 10:14 AM on November 24, 2008

You could put the frozen, chocolate covered cookie dough balls in the thumbprint!

(I don't even like chocolate and I think this whole thing is fun.)
posted by ocherdraco at 10:15 AM on November 24, 2008

Another vote for your crunchy-mooshy c chip sandwich.
posted by artdrectr at 11:21 AM on November 24, 2008

(especially if you make the cookie part a chocolate-chocolate-chip cookie and the cookie dough part regular chocolate chip),

I was going to suggest something similar: use white-chocolate mini-chips in chocolate-flavored dough to make the tiny frozen dough-balls. Then mix those in to regular cookie batter. I don't think they will completely hold their shape but they should form distinct, soft pockets and look cool.
posted by Miko at 11:28 AM on November 24, 2008

There might be something to using those little cookie dough bites candy in the cookies... I wonder if they'd work in addition to or instead of chocolate chips, and whether they'd get all melty and weird inside the cookie.
posted by alpha_betty at 1:48 PM on November 24, 2008

Mixing in cookie dough bites like you would chocolate chips might work. My boyfriend said he tried baking cookie dough bites and that their consistency did not change.
posted by bondgirl53001 at 2:38 PM on November 24, 2008

How's this for "science":

What makes the dough "cooked" is, generally, the cooking of the eggs in the dough. That's why vegan cookies can be difficult to create; with no egg, you have to be a little creative to make the cookies hold together. Enough sugar can serve as a binder, too, but you need a certain concentration of sugar and for the sugar to be heated enough.

So, what I recommend is this: Make a special batch of dough with _no eggs_. Avoid adding too too much sugar, but a regular recipe minus eggs might work. Maybe make up for any missing eggs and/or sugar with some extra butter and/or shortening - this should encourage softness at room temperature. Do make little clumps and freeze the clumps, so that they'll retain their integrity when mixing in with the regular cookie dough.

Then, yes, make your normal cookie dough recipe, add chocolate chips, then, finally, gently fold in your frozen dough bits. Be careful to get the proportions right, as well as the size of the eggless bits, so that the cookies will have sufficient structural integrity as well as sufficient soft dough.
posted by amtho at 3:21 PM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

I don't even like chocolate

Get thee behind me, Satan.

Because I'm serious about all things chocolate chip cookie, I also asked two friends of mine who are those people everybody knows who can walk into your kitchen and "whip up something", Natalie Mikles of Tulsa World, Dinah Murdoch of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, a cookie shop featured in the New York Times called Chip N Dipped, a relative who ran a specialty cake shop and one who does it recreationally.

The responses were these:

Chip N Dipped: You can buy cookie dough mixins from a bakery supply company (the kind they use for ice-cream) and make cookies using that.

Natalie: I don't know how you could do that without the dough melting. I've never seen a recipe like that.

Dinah: I don't think that's really possible, though, because cookies are cooked. And the dough is raw -- which is what people like about it. So I don't see how that can be.

Superbaker 1: (Basically the sandwich idea, and then the freeze-it and add it in at the last minute idea)

Relative 2: (Freeze the dough)

A couple of other respondents had no answer but dearly, dearly want to eat this cookie. I'm still waiting to hear from superbaker 2, relative 1, the PA General Store and a cookie shop in New Zealand. But fear not - I'm also still waiting on a reply from a friend of mine who has buddies in the Chemistry department of a local college. They have been informed that any solution, including liquid Nitro, is on the table.
posted by cashman at 6:04 PM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wow, cashman, you are serious. Would you consider an approach similar to what I suggest, i.e., make the "dough" part without eggs?

Also: a question about requirements: does the uncooked-dough part have to include chocolate chips? Because that will complexify things - the chocolate itself changing at high-enough temperatures.
posted by amtho at 6:36 PM on November 24, 2008

Wow, these are some awesome answers so far. Cashman, I'm especially impressed by your research!

I might have to try just about every suggestion here and have a massive taste-testing party. I might also have to add multiple "and then dipped in chocolate" steps.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:24 AM on November 25, 2008

Holy crap, cashman.

Also, I'd nth the liquid nitrogen/dry ice freezing , thin coat of proper cookie dough on the outside, right into the oven method.

Also also, this is possibly the greatest AskMe thread in the history of ever.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:05 AM on November 25, 2008

This would become the greatest askme thread if Grant Achatz showed up.

Failing that, here's my theory.

1. Make extremely thin, crispy, curved chocolate chip cookies on the outside of a slightly rounded form, like a big spoon or the outside of a shallow bowl, trying to take care not to cook the outside edges too much. Perhaps use a torch to concentrate the cooking on the inside of the cookie, or wrap the edges with wax paper to ensure they don't cook too much in an oven.

2. Immediately upon cooking, remove two of these cookies from the cooking surface. Fill with very cold cookie dough (temperature would probably have to be figured out via trial and error to get just right) and close together

3. Here's the key. Pinch the uncooked edges of the two cookies together like a clam.

4. Finish cooking the cookie edges, either with a torch or by regular cooking method (the edges will cook faster than the rest now that the cold cookie dough is acting as a heat sink for the remainder of the cookie).

There. No cheapo sandwich effect; cookie with cooked outside; cookie dough on the inside. Temperature and its gradients will be the big question here.
posted by felix at 11:15 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

My vote goes to having the kid help you try two or three of these options. And then, all science experiment like, think about what worked and what didn't.

But that's the dork in me.
posted by bilabial at 1:36 PM on November 25, 2008

@cashman: Just remember that this means there is more chocolate in the world for YOU. (My sister was always delighted at Halloween that not only did she get all of her own chocolate, but she got all of mine as well, and I only got a piddling few Skittles or Starburst in return.)
posted by ocherdraco at 1:52 PM on November 25, 2008

So I've talked to my friend (not the one with the kid, but the one who asked him about desserts) and we are hoping to make several of these variations over Christmas vacation and see what works out best. We figure that by now he's forgotten all about this idea, but we certainly haven't.

I will let y'all know how it turns out... provided we recover from our chocolate-chip coma.
posted by Metroid Baby at 1:31 PM on November 26, 2008

What about injecting the cookies? You could take pieces of dry ice and break them into tiny pieces, then blend them into the dough. When baked, the CO2 will sublimate, right? I'm not sure if the cookies will firm up around the holes before they disappear though. If they do, then you can use one of those flavor syringes to inject the raw dough once cooked.

Another option would be to find food-grade beads or something and lay the cookies on top of them, then pull them out once the cookies are baked. This would leave little holes under the cookies. You could fill them with cookie dough.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:25 PM on November 28, 2008

Okay - here are the final non-"I don't think it is possible" answers. Nothing groundbreaking here, but maybe more backing for the already suggested.

The Chemists/Food Scientists - The general consensus seemed to be that they thought that would be simply an undercooked cookie. If you really needed to have chunks of cookie dough then the best you could do would be to freeze lumps of cookie batter in liquid nitrogen, mix them into the room temperature dough just before cooking, then hope that they came to room temperature while the surrounding batter became a normal cookie in the oven.

Supercook 2 - Start with a batter of chocoate-chip cookie dough with less butter than standard mix, with mini chips or choco shavings, and preferably no egg. Arrange small chunks of 1st dough and freeze. For added giggles, dunk the little dough balls in melted chocolate (think color!) then freeze. Make batch of regular cc dough. Just before baking, gently fold in the frozen mini-dough chunks. Bake immediately for the standard time or slightly less. The frozen dough chunks shouldn't bake as fast or melt as easy due to less butter, leaving them more doughy surrounded by regular mostly-baked cookie.

Or, make part regular dough, part without egg (substitute applesauce?). Start baking the regular cookies, then just before they finish plop a frozen egg-free dough-disk in the middle of the cookie, kinda like the hershey's kisses cookies.


Everybody else that replied, folded when faced with the challenge. I suspect that some of these responses got cross-pollinated when websearches undoubtedly brought this page to the top. At any rate, good luck, happy baking and happy holidays.
posted by cashman at 2:31 PM on December 1, 2008

I beg your pardon. I did nothing like folding.
posted by Deathalicious at 7:06 AM on December 9, 2008

I meant all of the people that responded to me, by the way. This thread needs more pictures.
posted by cashman at 11:01 AM on December 10, 2008

so how did they turn out???
posted by Lizc at 3:37 PM on January 2