Thats the way the cookie crumbles
It seems like every food blogger has their favorite version of the classic recipes: and nothing gets more classic than a good chocolate chip cookie. Though I generally prefer to try lots of different new and exciting recipes then to make the same one over and over, there is one chocolate chip recipe that I turn to when I want something easy that will definitely turn out great: Jacques Torres’ recipe from the NYtimes. The secrets to making these cookies really fabulous are – use great chocolate and make sure not to over bake them (they should still be pretty soft when you take them out the oven). Since they are really good I made these to take to our new tenants downstairs when they moved in. And then I made another batch to eat, and to photograph!
Speaking of photographs: sometimes when Noerah and I are taking photos for the blog one of us just knows how we want to set up the shot: but other times we look for inspiration in books or online. With these cookies, Noerah did a classic cookies and milk shot which she posted and wrote about in her adventures in food photography post. But we has also seen somewhere a cookie shot taken in a wooden bowl and decided to give it a try. I don’t think ours worked out quite as well as the one we had used as inspiration (I can’t remember where we found it or I’d link to it). I think they ran the wood grain the other way and the cookies were a lighter color creating more of a contrast. Still, it was fun trying to balance the bowl and get some light into it (its hard to hold a reflector in the right position to bounce light into a standing bowl without getting in front of the camera). And if its not the perfect shot, I’ll just have to bake a few more batches so we can try again, its a hard life, I know, but thats the way the cookie crumbles!
–By Talia
Update 4/12/10 by Noerah
OUTTAKES.. and there are 8 more where those came from!
Cookies look blah
Too dark
Cookies are leaning
Bowl background is too focused - needs more blur
I like the photo, but you may be right about running the wood grain the other direction. The cookies look really good though. (To be a total critic, I think the type of wood may have something to do with it, since it looks soft even though it is in focus.)
I have yet to try the NYT CCC recipe that you made, my current favorite is Alton Brown’s “The Chewy” recipe. I’ll have to try this one next time I get a taste for cookies – well, that could be now… but I guess I mean in the future sometime
!
Good crit! I will try to post some outtakes under this post as an update so you can see what other mistakes I made. Noerah
Great photo! We love the NYT cookies too. Here is our post about them:
http://twopeasandtheirpod.com/new-york-times-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Great post: it was fun to read knowing exactly how the cookies taste!
Well, I love it the idea of stacking the cookies in a bowl. I’m totally charmed.
Thanks, Kate. Balancing wasn’t easy. We were also trying to make a cookie stand leaning against the cookie tower, but it didn’t work.
The way the shapes and colors repeat themselves is pure art! GREG
Thanks, Greg. This was for a class photo assignment where I was trying to play with light on different textures.
I love this picture!
Thanks, Valen.
Are you kidding? It’s a great shot!
Thanks! It was a great exercise.