I was just following links and got to this long post on making chocolate chip cookies:
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http://blog.josephhall.com/2006/11/chocolate-chip-cookies.html
And it reminded me of the thing that is so remarkable in this world, which is that no matter what concept you can imagine, someone somewhere is experimenting, studying, documenting, and discovering new things about it.
We can't spend all of our time going deep into the mysteries of every idea and object we interact with daily. But it's nice to occasionally take a trip a little deeper into something then you are used to.
Here's some of the text from that chocolate chip cookie article:
But there are important things to remember about butter vs margarine. Butter melts differently. Butter has different ratios of fats. Butter is a different fat altogether than margarine. Don't think you can go swapping it out willy-nilly; you will not have the same results. I'm not saying you won't like the results. But I am saying that I probably won't.
I used bread flour. You see, I like chewy cookies. I don't like thin and crispy. I don't like light and fluffy. I like chewy. Bread flour has a higher protein content, and the possibility to develop more gluten. It's important to remember that it doesn't actually contain gluten, but it does contain more of the proteins that create gluten. In order for gluten to form, it needs moisture and it has to be worked. Note: fat is not the same thing as moisture. In fact, fat shortens the gluten strands, whereas actual moisture helps them develop. I also upped the ante on baking soda. This was to help the cookies spread more slowly. This is not a concept that I fully understand, nor think worked. I also used dark brown sugar, because I like the deeper flavor that it offers.