Me Me Me Me Me!!! You?
I remember... Those good old days when I was hanging out at Orchard after school, I was always attracted to the sweet buttery chocolaty aroma from the baking of Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies lingering along basement walkway in between Wisma Atria and Takashimaya. Oh! This sweet scent is so irresistible... Sometimes, I would buy a bag of cookies to munch if I could or the poor student me would just simply enjoy this lovely scent! LOL!
After all these years, I'm surprised that the same Famous Amos cookies shop is still there! Or isn't it still there? I still like Famous Amos cookies but sadly, I don't buy these cookies anymore because there are too many other local food that I want to eat whenever we are back in Singapore.
Is there any Famous Amos cookies in Melbourne? I think we used to have one at Melbourne Central but it is now permanently closed.
Hmmm.... If I don't and can't buy Famous Amos cookies, I can try baking these cookies! So, I searched for "famous amos cookies recipe" via Google and found heaps...
What is so special about Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies? They are crispy and HAVE to be crispy!!! LOL!
Here, I have road-tested two so-called Famous Amos copycat recipes and I will tell you if they are like the Famous Amos cookies or not... Wanna know more?
I'm looking for the best Famous Amos Chocolate Chips Cookies copycat recipe.
And these are the ones that are crispy!!!
When I did a Google search for "Famous Amos cookies recipe", I found a few distinctive groups of copycat recipes and they are generally...
1) Copycat recipes that contain oats!
There is NO oats in Famous Amos cookies!!! Obviously, these are NOT the recipes that I'm after!!!
2) Copycat recipes like this that contain Crisco shortening.
I usually don't use shortening for baking because shortening doesn't taste as good as butter. However, I have shown at here that the baked goods that are made with shortening are structurally more stable than those that are made with butter. Furthermore, I have used butter with no shortening to bake crispy chocolate chip cookies at here and here before. These cookies will spread out quite a lot during baking and become rather flat and thin cookies which are not like the Famous Amos cookies at all. So obviously, I need to use shortening to bake my Famous Amos cookies!
3) Copycat recipes like this and this that contain vegetable oil.
These recipes claim that vegetable oil can make their cookies crispy!!! Wow!!! I want to know if it is true and I will try this recipe!
4) Most copycat recipes uses 1:1 fat:sugar proportion and can go up 1:3. Different copycat recipes uses different brown sugar:caster proportion and they are generally 1:1 or 2:1.
To kick start my Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies copycat recipes road-testing, I have consolidated these copycat recipes and derived two standard recipes to try... One has shortening and the other one has vegetable oil.
To standardise, I have also reduced the fat:sugar proportion to 2:1 and prefer to use 2:1 brown sugar:caster sugar. Let see if the cookies are crispy or Famous Amos enough or not...
Recipe One: The chocolate chip cookies that are made with shortening
These are the cookies that are made with 1:1 butter:shortening.
And they are crispy!!!
I have to say that these crispy cookies (made with shortening) taste quite like the Famous Amos cookies!!!However, the extremely critical me still think that these crispy cookies are still not Famous Amos enough because...1) While baking these cookies, I'm disappointed that the baking didn't release the irresistible sweet buttery toffee-like aroma that I'm after!!! For this reason, I have to increase the proportion of butter:shortening to 2:1 and will add more vanilla into my subsequent cookies. More butter and vanilla means more sweet butter-aroma released? LOL!2) Although the sweetness of these cookies are just right for us, these cookies definitely need more sugar if they need to be more like the Famous Amos ones. For this reason, I will increase my fat:sugar proportion from 2:1 to 1:1 or 1:1.5. More sugar means more crispy cookies? ... but I try not to bake the cookies with 1:2 fat:sugar proportion. Less sugar means better health for us? Hmmm...3) I really like the lovely taste of the brown sugar in these cookies and prefer to stick to 2:1 brown sugar:caster sugar proportion. However, I think that the cookies look a little paler than the real Famous Amos ones. Hence, instead of altering the brown sugar:caster sugar proportion in these cookies, I will use dark brown sugar to bake my subsequent cookies.Nevertheless, these sugar-reduced crispy Famous Amos-like cookies are very yummy!!! And if you want to bake these cookies, I have a video showing how I baked these cookies.
Recipe Two: The chocolate chip cookies that are made with vegetable oil
These are the copycat Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies that are made with vegetable oil.
Although these cookies made with vegetable oil are LESS Famous Amos than cookies that are made with shortening, I'm totally impressed with the texture of these cookies. They are crispy at their rims and melty and crumbly inside. Oh! Very yummy!
Nice that these cookies are not overly sweetened and they are made with half butter and half vegetable oil which means that these cookies are lower in their saturated fat content.
I'm happy that I found this recipe!!! To be fair to this fabulous copycat vegetable oil Famous Amos Chocolate Chips Cookies recipe, I think I should call these the yummy less-guilty crispy melty chocolate chip cookies!
Yummy and less guilty...
These sugar-reduced chocolate chips cookies are made with half vegetable oil and half butter.
Yummy because these are crispy at their rims and have melty crumbly inside.
Impressive!
Want to bake these reduced sugar less saturated fat chocolate chips cookies for you and your family, I have a video showing how I baked these cookies.
How about recipe Three, Four and more???
Besides these two recipes, I have actually tried to try baking many another batches of cookies with less shortening, less or more butter, more sugar and different sugar combinations and yielded many interesting crispy cookies. All because the fussy me thinks that these cookies need more fine-tuning to become more Famous Amos.
If you want to know which is my BEST Copycat Crispy Famous Amos chocolate chips cookies, please stay tune... To get the latest updates, you can follow me at either my Facebook at here or here or my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids
More Famous Amos cookies baking?
Yes but these crispy cookies need more fine-tuning to be more Famous Amos...
While I'm searching for the BEST Famous Amos cookies recipe, I hope that you will like these two chocolate chips cookies recipes that I have came across circumstantially as they are really good in their ways. Both make cookies that are not too sweet and yet uniquely crispy.
Still not Famous Amos enough? Hmmm... Just wish me luck and I will find the best recipe!
Talking about luck... I have been very lucky that I have survived through my 7th marathon. I was having a viral infection and a running nose for the past 5 days but I still went ahead to run the full 42 km and completed it within 4:03:13! It's always good to be lucky ^-^
Lucky that I've completed my 7th marathon!
I will share more of my Famous Amos Cookies baking soon. If you are interested, you can follow me at either my Facebook at here or here or my Instagram @zoebakeforhappykids
And here are the standardised recipes that are adapted from many copycat Famous Amos Cookies recipes.
Recipe One with shortening - the more Famous Amos like cookies
Makes about 45 bite-size cookies60g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
60g shortening, preferably trans fat free Cisco
45g light brown sugar
25g caster sugar
25g egg (about 1/2 an egg but please use the exact weight)
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract
150g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100g (1/2 cup) chocolate chips
Recipe Two with oil - exactly like Recipe One but contains oil instead of shortening and has less egg
Makes about 42 bite-size cookies60g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
60g vegetable oil - I used rice bran oil.
45g light brown sugar
25g caster sugar
12g egg (about 1/4 an egg but please use the exact weight)
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract
150g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100g (1/2 cup) chocolate chips
extra chocolate chips to top if desired
If you wish to bake chocolate chip cookies with nuts like walnut, pecans, macadamia, almonds or etc, you can substitute 1/2 cup chocolate chips with 1/4 cup chocolate chips plus 1/4 cup roughly chopped nuts that you likeFor both recipes, on the day before the bake:
Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter, shortening for recipe one or oil for recipe two, brown sugar and caster sugar for about 2-3 mins or until combined. The mixture for recipe one will look pale and fluffy and the mixture for recipe two will look slightly lumpy. Add egg into the butter mixture bit by bit, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt and sift flour mixture into the butter mixture and use a spoon or spatula to mix until all ingredients are well incorporated. Then, stir in the chocolate chips.
Transfer cookie dough onto a plastic wrap and use the wrap to press and knead the dough together. Wrap the dough with the plastic wrap and let it to rest overnight in the fridge. The cookie dough made from recipe one is slightly crumbly whereas the cookie dough made from recipe two is too soft for shaping and so both dough need to rest overnight in the fridge to form a good firm texture before baking.
On the day of bake:
Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F. Line baking trays with baking paper.
Drop 1 tablespoonful of dough onto the prepared baking trays, about 5 cm / 2 inches apart. Use your hand to flatten the cookie dough slightly. Top each cookie dough with more chocolate chips if desired. Bake for 12-14 mins or until the edges of the cookies are firm. Do not under-bake the cookies if you want the cookies to be crispy. Allow cookies to cool slightly on the tray for 5-10 mins, then transfer onto wire racks to cool completely. The cookies are a little soft when they are freshly baked and will become crispy when they are completely cooled.
Serve and enjoy.
Store any uneaten cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up 5 days.
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