Cookies: Chewy or Crunchy

I noticed that there are some very decided preferences re cookie textures.

My American classmates in VA and at Oxford all loved soft chewy cookies and introduced me to what they called "the American cookie" (i.e. soft and chewy and very sweet except for those with nuts).

I have been used to Chinese cookies that are combine saltiness, savouriness and sweetness and usually melt in your mouth with you pop it in.

Now, I see that some of you are into crunchy cookies and am wondering which is more popular in the States: crunchy or chewy? Any favourite cookie recipes to share?

I can only speak for the Sundancer and I prefer a chewy cookie. I like peanut butter, oatmeal, sugar and macadamia with white chocolate. In addition I really like them fresh out of the oven.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Oooooh! I found a blog article with pictures of Chinese pastries and cookies:

http://www.shiokadelicious.com/shiokadelicious/2004/01/who_needs_an_ex_1.html#more

I like crunchy cookies. I like to eat them with coffee (maybe involves a little dunkin too !)

I like chocolate chip (with lots of chips) and I especially love oreos !!!

I'm a soft, chewy cookie guy. Not that I'd toss away a crunchy one. I'm also not a cookie dunker.

Jellybeans,
I love chinese cookies.. I grew up in Taiwan and Hong Kong.. so I love reading your posts about what you enjoy eating...

I had been twenty years since I used milk as a beverage. When I did, I used to dunk my favorite vanilla sandwich cookies in the milk until they were saturated. I also did the same with Oreo's.

One hot summer a friend invited me to see his dairy farm. I did and I have not used milk as a beverage since.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Sundancer..
I worked on a dairy farm in Israel, and you know.. I really don't drink that much milk anymore either...strange

Mom at work

quote:

Originally posted by IansMom

Jellybeans,
I love chinese cookies.. I grew up in Taiwan and Hong Kong.. so I love reading your posts about what you enjoy eating...

Cool! (Although the link isn't to my blog--it's to a Singaporean foodie's blog!)

Do you like Loh Poh Pang (Wife's Pastry Biscuit)? You know, the flaky lard pastry one with melon seed filling? YUM!!!!

Oh: I love oreos too, scbuzz--got the habit in the States

I love the melon seeds.. I miss those so much.. I'm in KY now so it's kind of hard to get a lot of the stuff I really love.

quote:

I used to dunk my favorite vanilla sandwich cookies in the milk until they were saturated. I also did the same with Oreo's.

Yes Sundancer dunking is an art. If you take it out to soon it is not really saturated, leave it in to long and you lose your cookie

Politics, sausage, and now milk, are things you should not see how they are made.

carl reitz

Large Soft Cookies...Oatmeal-raisin first, Then Choc. Chip, then Peanut Butter. They need to be large, thick and chewy !! COSTCO makes'em that way. I have never had a bad cookie from that place.

For "American" cookies, I like chewy-soft on the inside with a crispy exterior...but I really want to hear more about these salty, savory, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth cookies that Jellybeans mentions! More details, pretty please?

with apologies to Will Rogers--I never net a cookie i didnt like!
soft and chewy-salty sweet-melt aways-double cooked till they were hard and crunchy and made to dunk!!!!Aren't they delightful!

Depends on the cookie. Oreos, I guess would be an example of crunchy. So would a good shortbread cookie. But, then oatmeal, etc would be chewy. I like a good chewy chocolate chip. I recently bought an outstanding, best ever peanut butter cookie that was excellent and it was chewy, as opposed to crunchy. Made by a company/restaurant called "Laura's House" in Chimney Rock, NC.
www.laurashousefood-gifts.com

The otameals were not sold on the website, damn!, but they had some other good looking things.

carl reitz

I like chewy cookies. They are less crumby and aren't so dry. Crunchy cookies are good for dipping in fudge or milk.

I prefer crunchy, like shortbread, but the best of all is a fresh from the oven toll house chocalate chip cookie which is just sightly crunchy on the outside, but soft and chewey inside.

With brownies, I like to get the cut from around the pan edges where they are chewier.

quote:

Originally posted by berndog

I prefer crunchy, like shortbread, but the best of all is a fresh from the oven toll house chocalate chip cookie which is just sightly crunchy on the outside, but soft and chewey inside.

With brownies, I like to get the cut from around the pan edges where they are chewier.

and I find those perfect toll hose cookies to be very hard to make. My late grandmother made them perfectly. Most of mine, my sister's and my wife's cook up more cripy or cakey than chewy. My daughter has discovered that by substituting a little oil for some of the solid shortning gives a chewy cookie all else being equil. For me the best cookie is a chewy toll house with added pecans. Like the Sundancer, I suffer on a low carb diet, so don't eat many cookies.

Crunchy, cooked to a deep dark (almost burnt) brown is expecially the way to enjoy chocolate chip (with nuts) or Scotch shortbread butter cookies.

i like em crunchy--but not burnt.... i don't care for soft cookies.. my all time favorite cookie combo is chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies and a glass of cold milk........ for dunking of course! to me-- there's no other way to eat a cookie!! ( other than fresh from the oven-- but when you don't have that luxury-- dunking them will have to do :)

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Large Soft Cookies...Oatmeal-raisin first, Then Choc. Chip, then Peanut Butter. They need to be large, thick and chewy !! COSTCO makes'em that way. I have never had a bad cookie from that place.

I agree..I love "bakery" type oatmeal cookies. The recipes I find for soft oatmeal cookies end up cakie..and that just doesn't work or me. If they are chewy they are too thin..I want substance, yet with the soft,thick chewieness.. not picky am I.?<G>.
If anyone has access to such a recipe.. I would love to find one. You should see the list of recipes I have yet to try that I don't think will meet my wanting.. but I will have fun baking my way there anyway. So.. send one my way. btw..I am a newbie.. that loves to cook.

Chewey... with big chocolate chunks!

The best cookies are from Subway (the sandwhich shop). They are almost an afterthought on the menu but are TO DIE FOR!! When I was in Mexico for my honeymoon I tracked down an El Subway... everything was the same EXCEPT THE COOKIES!!

Chewey oatmeal raisin.

I agree with Tiki. However if dunking I pefer more crunchy. Oreo's are best for Dunking. A local Compay Friheoffer makes Choolate Chip Cookies they totally rock they are chewy as but are also good for dunking, pretty much all other Chewy Cookies I don't dunk, Such as Archways Brownie Bars, way better than Tasteycakes.