This recipe is from NYT Cooking Co. I haven’t made it yet, but I stumbled upon it while googling “pan-banging” while baking cookies. I’d never heard of such a thing, but I guess it is a way to get crisp edges and gooey centers, yum!
A comment from one of the readers that I want to try is, “For a really extravagant and well-layered flavor, use cultured butter and vanilla bourbon extract and garnish with flaky sea salt.“
Ingredients
- 2 cups (256 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
- 1½ cups (302 grams) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (55 grams) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet chocolate (about 60% cacao), chopped into coarse pieces, bits and shards
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to the middle position
- Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil, parchment paper or nonstick baking mats
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium until creamy
- Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes
- Add the flour mixture, and mix on low until combined
- Add the chocolate and mix on low into the batter
- At this point, the dough can be refrigerated for several hours or overnight
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Form the dough into 3½-ounce (100 gram) balls (a heaping ⅓ cup each)
- Place 4 balls an equal distance apart on a prepared pan, and transfer to the freezer for 15 minutes before baking
- After you put the first baking sheet in the oven, put the second one in the freezer
- Place the chilled baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until the cookies are puffed slightly in the center
- Lift the baking sheet and let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the inside falls back down. Bang it down, if necessary, to make the center fall.
- After the cookies puff up again, 2 to 3 minutes later, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times, every 3 minutes, to create ridges around the edge of the cookie
- Bake 16 to 18 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out, and the edges are golden brown, but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked
- Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack; let cool before removing the cookies from the pan
- Repeat with the remaining cookies, using the first sheet pan for the third batch of cookies
comment from another reader: I made these smaller (75 grams each) and did the first pan bang at 6 min in, then again every 2-3 minutes. I used 100 grams of brown sugar and just under 200 grams of white sugar. These are so good- caramely and crisp and decadent. But to be honest, even if they turned out terribly, the joy that came from hitting something really hard every 2 minutes would have satisfied me. As Covid cases continue to rise around us, it feels good to drop a cookie sheet onto the counter and make a loud noise.