America's Favorite Cookie

I read somewhere that chocolate chip cookies are, hands down, America's favorite cookie--and I have to agree.  Although I like most variations, I've tried numerous recipes in order to produce the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  For the time being, I have settled on the standard Tollhouse recipe you can find on the back of a bag of Nestle's chocolate chips.  In fact, it is one of three recipes I have taped to the inside of one of my cupboards--the home of my most frequently used recipes.

The white bean puree I blogged about previously worked beautifully in my oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I wanted to put it to another test.  The oatmeal cookie is a hardy cookie with lots of texture for the bean puree to get lost in; a tollhouse cookie, on the other hand, is gooey with a smoother texture.  The challenge was to substitute half the butter in the tollhouse recipe with the white bean puree and still get a yummy cookie.

On Wednesday I put on an apron and began my experiment.  The recipe calls for one cup of butter, so I put 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter and one of my frozen half-cup lumps of bean puree in a mixing bowl.  At this point I was feeling skeptical because the puree, in its frozen state, felt and looked dry.  The puree also wasn't thawing as fast as I wanted it to, so I stuck it in the microwave for about thirty seconds then put it back in the bowl.  From this point on, I followed the recipe exactly.

The finished cookies were a little puffier than a regular tollhouse cookie when using one hundred percent butter, but they looked very nice.  I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted one of the warm cookie; the outside was a little crispy and the inside was soft and yummy.  I put one of the cooled cookies on a paper towel to see how much grease the towel would absorb and after one hour found practically no traces of grease.  Yesterday (Thursday) they tasted a little firmer, but still good.  Today I ate the last cookie of the batch and, although the flavor was still good, it was kind of hard.  Three adults and seven children tasted the cookies on the day I baked them and they all loved them...even when they knew there were beans in them!

Would I use white bean puree in my tollhouse cookie recipe again????  Absolutely.  Not only were they tasty (although different than a traditional tollhouse), I felt good about eating a cookie lower in fat and with a little fiber. 

Here's the Nestle's Tollhouse Cookie Recipe with the white bean puree substitution.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup white bean puree, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter (or butter and white bean puree), granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.