Balancing the scales with an adapted chocolate chunk recipe

It makes me happy when a baking recipe has ingredient weights so I can use my scale* for accurate and neat measurement.  It's so much easier to add ingredients by putting the mixing bowl onto the scale, pressing the tare button, and then adding what I need, instead of getting out (and dirtying) multiple measuring cups (especially when the ingredient is something gooey or messy items like oil, molasses and honey**).  However, I haven't been good about making the recipes on this blog scale-compatible.  

The recipe below is a first attempt to start balancing the scales of talk and action.  It is an adaptation of one of my favorite recipes in the family of chocolate chunk cookies, one that has a bit of wheat germ and oats for heartiness and flavor. The display format is somewhat of a hybrid because of the futility of giving weights for quantities as small as a teaspoon and the quantum nature of eggs (note that the egg is specified as "1 large", not as a weight or volume).

For more scale love, visit items by David Lebovitz, Alice Medrich and Fahrad Manjoo at the New York Times.

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Recipe:  Hearty Chocolate Chunk Cookies


Ingredients:

	Metric / weight	Non-metric / volume
Unsalted butter	110 g	1/2 c.
Light brown sugar	100 g	1/2 c.
White sugar	100 g	1/2 c.
Egg	1 large	1 large
Vanilla extract	5 mL	1 t.
Baking powder	5 mL	1 t.
Table salt	2.5 mL	1/2 t.
White flour	100 g	3/4 c.
Raw wheat germ	20 g	1/4 c.
Quick oats	100 g	1 c.
Rolled oats	40 g	1/2 c.
Dark chocolate, chopped	85 g	3 ounces
Milk chocolate, chopped	55 g	2 ounces

Optional additions: walnuts, almonds, raisins, dried cherries, coarse salt

(Unit conversion page)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).

Mix the dry ingredients (but not the chocolate) together in a bowl.

Chop the dark and milk chocolate into pieces that are slightly larger than standard chocolate chips. It is not easy to do this; don't worry if the pieces are randomly sized, that is one of the charms of these cookies (a.k.a. chocolatey randomness).

Combine the butter and sugars in a bowl. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment. Beat together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl, and mix together on low speed until the dough is mixed. Add the chocolate and optional ingredients. Mix on low speed for a short time to combine.

Bake for 10-15 minutes on greased or lined cookie sheets. After removing sheets from the oven, let the cookies cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

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* For what it's worth, I have used an Escali P115 for years and am quite happy with it.
** To adapt recipes on the fly, I keep a list of ingredient weights on scraps of paper on my refrigerator, adding items as needed.

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Random link from the archive: Rise and Fall, Hit and Miss