Experiment 1, part 2: the cookies

Well, the cookies came out of the oven, and they were delicious! (If I do say so myself...)

As promised, photo documentation:

<center><table border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center valign=top><a href="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/1.jpg"><img src="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/1t.jpg"></a><br /><small><b>Fig. 1.</b> The dough before baking</small></td><td align=center valign=top><a href="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/2.jpg"><img src="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/2t.jpg"></a><br /><small><b>Fig. 2.</b> The dough in the oven, after 5 min</small></td><td align=center valign=top><a href="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/3.jpg"><img src="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/3t.jpg"></a><br /><small><b>Fig. 3.</b> In the oven, after 17 min</small></td><td align=center valign=top><a href="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/4.jpg"><img src="http://www.space-pirates.org/gfbaker-pics/4t.jpg"></a><br /><small><b>Fig. 4.</b> The final cookies</small></td></tr></table></center>

I made three cookies from each group (from left to right: the control group, group F, group O, group S). As you can see, there's a marked difference in the dough from the beginning. After five minutes in the oven (Fig. 2), the difference is even more dramatic. The control group has begun to melt, Group S has begun to melt even more, and Group F is actually showing signs of rising. By minute 17 (Fig. 3), the cookies have, more or less, assumed their eventual morphology.

The final cookies (Fig. 4) were all tasty, but in different ways. The control group was slightly thin in the batter, with crispy edges and a slightly chewy center. Group F was all chewy (<lj user=aethera>'s favorite), Group O was (not surprisingly) oatmeal cookie-textured, and Group S was even thinner and crispier than the control group. Apparently the added baking soda reacted too quickly to form much of a lasting rise, and neutralized the acids in the baking powder, resulting in a flatter cookie.

To my taste, the perfect chocolate chip cookie lies somewhere in the range represented by the control group and Groups F and S (Group O was very specifically an oatmeal cookie, and would probably have been better with raisins). The flavor was amazingly ideal for a chocolate chip cookie; the biggest difference seemed to be in my original plan&mdash;using butter and brown sugar. Perhaps half the additional rice flour of Group F, plus some baking soda, for next time. In the meantime, it's a good thing I liked them all&mdash;there's still plenty of dough in that freezer...

So. On with the narrative. Emboldened by our success, we set about adapting the Moosewood Muffin recipe, which, in my pre&ndash;gluten-free days, I often made with pumpkin and chocolate chips, for use with rice flour. This was not an experiment; I didn't measure the ingredients very carefully. But boy, did they turn out strange! They had absolutely <b>no rise at all</b>, so when cooked, they were remarkably similar in texture to nian gao (a rice flour&ndash;based dim sum treat which I quite enjoy, but which doesn't work well with the pumpkin flavor). Well, at least the cookies went well.

So my challenge, over the next couple days, is to figure out why the cookies turned out so well, while the muffins, with essentially the same flour mixture, turned out so atrociously. Off to Whole Foods for more xanthan gum (and maybe some guar gum for comparison), and then back for some good old-fashioned kitchen chemistry. In the meantime, remember: You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you knead.