Yeasted cookies?

The original recipe.

I was poking around on the internet and found this post for yeasted chocolate chip cookies. I'm a BIG fan of yeast, so I was intrigued. I decided to do a taste test.

I baked up two batches of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, one with 1t of baking soda, and one with 1t of instant yeast. The smell and a quick email attracted about 25 of the people in my dorm and they voted on taste and texture.

Yeasted cookies on the left, original recipe on the right.

The results:
Taste
Yeast: 14
Baking Soda: 9

Yeasted cookies were the clear winner on taste, but there was more to this than met the eye. The yeast cookies had a much cleaner taste—it was easier to taste the actual cookie and the chocolate and the vanilla. The baking soda cookie, though, just tasted like you expect a cookie to taste—it was familiar, and therefore delicious.

My suggestion: If you're going to try a new recipe, replace the baking soda with yeast. If you're making your grandma's snickerdoodle recipe, don't mess with it.

Texture
Yeast: 11
Baking Soda: 13

This was a pretty even split, but again, more than meets the eye. I had two different baking trays that cooked very differently. I baked each type of cookie on each type of tray and they produced very different results. I think this affected texture much more than the yeast vs. baking soda.

My suggestion: If you want thin, crispy cookies, bake on a sturdier baking tray. If you want cookies with a gooey center and golden brown bottom, use a lighter, thinner baking tray.

A plethora of cookies.

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Yeasted Chocolate Chip Cookies
60 cookies


Ingredients
2 sticks of butter
0.75c white sugar
0.75c brown sugar
1T vanilla
2 large eggs
1t salt
2.25c all-purpose flour
1t instant yeast
2c chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F
2. Melt the butter most of the way in the microwave. (As a college student, I don't have a hand mixer or a KitchenAid, so I cheat and melt the butter.)
3. Add the sugar to the melted butter and whisk with a fork like you'd scramble eggs. (This is to try to get a little more air incorporated. It helps if you let the butter cool a little bit over the course of whisking.)
4. Add the salt and vanilla, and whisk a bit more.
5. Check to make sure the mixture is cool enough. Crack in two eggs, scramble them together, and then whisk them into the sugar/butter mixture. It should look pretty fluffy by now.
6. Add flour, yeast and salt, taking care to put the yeast and salt on opposite sides of the mixing bowl. Fold together until mostly homogenous.
7. Add chocolate chips and stir into the batter.
8. Divide into tablespoonfuls (not heaping tablespoonfuls) onto a baking tray, preferably greased or with parchment paper.
9. Bake for 6-10 minutes (depending on your baking tray--the sturdier, the longer), until the edges are golden brown.
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