Chocolate Chip Cookies with Orange Bitters

December 14, 2016

In 1938, Ruth Wakefield, co-owner of the Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts, created her Chocolate Chip Cookie as an accompaniment to ice cream. Ruth’s cookie became so popular that Marjorie Husted (aka Betty Crocker) featured the recipe on The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air. Nestlé then paid Ruth $1 to print her recipe on the back of their chocolate chip package.

I’ve modernized Ruth’s recipe with orange bitters that cut the sweetness as they enhance the richness and complexity of this delicious classic. Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thanks Hella Bitters for this inventive twist on tradition.

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Ingredients

Makes 24-36 cookies

Volume Grams Ounces

1 stick 113.5 grams 4 ounces softened butter
1 cup 198 grams 7 ounces granulated white sugar
1 cup 218 grams 7.7 ounces packed brown sugar
2 2 2 eggs
2 teaspoons 2 teaspoons 2 teaspoons orange bitters
1 teaspoon 1 teaspoon 1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons 2 teaspoons 2 teaspoons hot water
½ teaspoon ½ teaspoon ½ teaspoon salt
2 ¼ cups 281 grams 9.9 ounces all-purpose bleached flour
2 cups 331 grams 11.7 ounces chopped dark chocolate or chips
large flake maldon sea salt or fleur de sel sprinkled on warm cookies out of the oven)

Instructions

Mise en Place the Cookie Dough

Add butter, white and brown sugar into a bowl of an electric mixer. Set aside.
Combine the eggs and orange bitters in a small bowl.

Two brands of orange bitters in place of vanilla.

Dissolve baking soda in hot water.

Set the chocolate chips into a bowl.

Chocolate chips ready for the cookie dough.

Measure the flour and salt into a bowl and set aside. Read The Finer Cookie’s post on how to weigh and measure.
Line two baking trays with parchment or a baking liner.

Assembling the Cookie Dough

Preheat oven to 350F degrees if baking immediately.
Beat the butter, white and brown sugar until smooth.

Creamed butter and sugar. This step sets the structure of your cookie.

Beat in the eggs and orange bitters one at a time.
Add the dissolved baking soda to the cookie dough.

Cookie dough with egg added and without the flour.

Add the flour and salt to the cookie dough.
Add the chocolate chips.

Cookie dough mixed and ready for the chill.

Refrigerating the cookie dough is optional, but can be left overnight.

Baking the Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Drop by large spoonfuls onto your prepared pans.

Cookie dough scooped and ready for the oven. Yeah.

Bake at 350F for about 10-15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned, and the centers are set and slightly firm to the touch.