This past weekend, the urge struck again. COOKIE TIME! This time around, I followed a recipe from one of my favorite television personalities: Alton Brown. I picked the chewy recipe from an episode of Good Eats called Three Chips for Sister Marsha. I picked this recipe because, as you may recall from Part 1, the cookies were rather cake-like, while I was hoping for a chewier cookie. Alton is great at what he does, and takes a lot of the mystery out of what happens in cooking and baking, so I figured I could not go wrong following his recipe. Of course, there were a few small tweaks I made, not all of them voluntary. Here is what I learned, and even more changes for next time.

1. The cookie dough scoop was a wonderful help. I've now found that there are multiple sizes, I think I will invest in the next size up to add to my arsenal.

2. The dough did not pop off the cookie sheets as well as last time. Thankfully, I did get to try out my Silpat on some of the batch. On the sheets that I used the Silpat, the cookies popped right off, so using a Silpat is highly recommended. Now, why did the cookies stick to the cookie sheets this time around? See Note 6 below.

3. I cut down on the butterscotch chips this time around, about 1/4 cup. This worked well, because instead of being an overpowering force in each cookie, the butterscotch chips were just an occasional treat. Sometimes you would get one, sometimes not.

4. The cookies were definitely chewier with the new recipe. They would have been even more so if I had followed the recipe to a tee. I did not have bread flour on hand, so I used regular flour. Bread flour has a higher gluten content, so that would have helped a lot. I got my hands on regular dark brown sugar, rather than using the granulated light brown sugar I used last batch. I will be cutting back a bit on the brown sugar though, as the batch was a tad bit too sweet.

5. I still don't have a KitchenAid stand mixer, but I did use an electric mixer rather than creaming the sugar and butter by hand. Using the electric mixer saved a lot of arm pain, as well as mixed the ingredients much better.

6. This time around, rather than baking the cookies right away after finishing the dough, I let the dough rest in the refrigerator for a few hours. A few recipes I had come across said this improves the texture of the final cookie, allowing the wet ingredients to be fully absorbed by the flour. I would say it was good advice, but since the dough is cold when it goes into the oven, it does not automagically grease the pan as well as room temperature dough does. But, using the Silpat, this is not an issue. I have to go buy a few more Silpats now.

I think this recipe is a keeper. I will be buying bread flour next time I am at the shops, though, so expect a Part 3. If anyone has any comments or advice, do share, leave a comment below!