Alton Brown’s “The Puffy”
As you all know, I love Alton Brown. I’ve made a few of his recipes recently including his overnight cinnamon rolls and his famous chewy chocolate chip cookie. He did a great episode of Good Eats where he created three very different versions of chocolate chip cookie by making slight variations of the Nestle Tollhouse recipe.
To say I really enjoyed “The Chewy” is an understatement. It is delicious. I can’t rave about it enough. I decided to try out another recipe from the episode “The Puffy”.
I didn’t have any butter flavored shortening, so I ended up using 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. These cookies were very puffy when they came out of the oven, but they deflated quite a bit as they cooled. The cake flour gives these cookies a great texture and this is another great chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I much prefer The Chewy. I just like chewy cookies.
The Puffy – from Alton Brown – I got 4 dozen cookies using my cookie scoop1 cup butter-flavored shortening – I used 1/2 cup shortening + 1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the shortening (and butter), sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and cream until light and fluffy. Sift together the cake flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside.
Add the eggs 1 at a time to the creamed mixture. Add vanilla. Increase the speed until thoroughly incorporated.
With the mixer set to low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough (I chilled the dough overnight). Scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 per sheet (I used a my regular sized cookie scoop to get smaller cookies). Bake for 13 minutes (mine baked for about 9 minutes) or until golden brown and puffy, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool and store in an airtight-container.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
If Carlos claims this is the best thing you have ever made … I might have to make them tonight!
beantownbaker — February 10th, 2014 @ 9:57 am
Let me know if you do. I was seriously SHOCKED when he said that.
OH. MY. LORD.
Yeah, I can see why these are the best ever!!!! Love Samoas!
I grew up calling them Samoas and didn’t like them when I was selling them, but have since grown to love them. Great twist on a traditional rice krispie treat!
beantownbaker — February 11th, 2014 @ 12:14 pm
I can’t tell if the naming thing is regional or not. I know people who grew up in Indiana like me who call them Samoas. They’ll always be Caramel Delites to me.
they look sooooo good!
Sharing these in my friday link roundup!
Everyone needs to see these!
beantownbaker — February 13th, 2014 @ 8:49 pm
Thanks for sharing them!!
oh jeez. caramel de lites here, too 🙂 these sound killer!
beantownbaker — February 23rd, 2014 @ 12:47 pm
You’re the first person I’ve met who calls them Caramel de Lites too!
I’ve been wondering why they aren’t always called Samoas!
Are the pecans there for the Samoa flavor or just an extra addition?
beantownbaker — March 18th, 2014 @ 8:03 am
They add some texture but you could leave them out if you wanted.
Awesome recipe! Let me provide a little insight to the naming of the cookies (Caramel deLights vs Samoas my wife is a girl scout troop leader). The girl scouts rely on a few bakeries to produce their cookies. Caramel deLights are made by one bakery, while Samoas are made by another.
Just made these – very tasty, but I had a lot of trouble with the caramel layer. It hardened so much, I couldn’t cut the squares. I had to heat them up a bit to cut through the caramel, and then they got rather sticky and did not cut cleanly. Followed directions exactly, not sure what went wrong…
On Sunday nights, my hubby leads a college-age Bible study group and I use the kids/young adults as my guinea pigs for trying new recipes. I made these yesterday and they LOVED them. Thank you for the recipe!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 6:59 pm
So glad these were a hit for you! This has become my most frequently made and requested recipe that I’ve made.
Explained well.