Alton Brown's "The Puffy" | Beantown Baker

Thursday, April 30, 2009

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.

Cookies, Dessert

3 comments »

19 Responses to “Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting”

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Megan — January 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm

I’ll take any leftovers! They sound amazing. I keep saying dessert recipes with bacon and bookmarking them, but I haven’t tried any yet. Adding this one to the list now too. 🙂
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ann — January 13, 2011 at 5:07 pm

These look so terrific. I love the flavor combinations!
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Blog is the New Black — January 13, 2011 at 5:08 pm

I’m intrigued!
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KV — January 13, 2011 at 5:46 pm

interesting! I have a recipe for chocolate bacon fudge or maybe pb bacon fudge but I’m afraid to try it
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Rachel @ Baked by Rachel — January 13, 2011 at 6:01 pm

The frosting sounds amazing. I honestly still can’t bring myself to get behind bacon in desserts. Maybe someday I’ll try a bacon cupcake if I’m given one though. 🙂 I can only resist so long.
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Jennifer — January 13, 2011 at 6:08 pm

YUM! These look so good! I haven’t tried the bacon / sweet combo yet, but I’m sure I would love it!
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Fun and Fearless in Beantown — January 13, 2011 at 6:13 pm

This looks delicious but I’ve got to ask….what is a pirate party?
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Jen — January 13, 2011 at 6:21 pm

Fun and Fearless – It’s exactly like it sounds… Everyone dresses up as a pirate (or something related – Hubby and I went as Treasure maps last year). They even hire this guy who looks like Captain Jack Sparrow to come and there’s a prize for best costume. One of the best parties of the year!
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Cupcake Activist — January 13, 2011 at 8:48 pm

Sounds great! The problem I’ve seen with bacon is that sometimes it is chewy in cupcakes. That’s not good. I like that this recipe says to cook until crispy. Extra crispy for me!
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Laura and Alex — January 13, 2011 at 9:11 pm

My favorite candy bar is bacon chocolate!!! I can’t wait to try this 🙂
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Carrie — January 13, 2011 at 9:13 pm

Wow, those look and sound amazing!
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Shannon — January 13, 2011 at 9:42 pm

oh yum. after putting bacon in last years cookies this might need to be next 🙂
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Corrine — January 13, 2011 at 9:56 pm

I’m so curious to try bacon in baked goods, but do you think turkey bacon would work?
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Jen — January 13, 2011 at 10:08 pm

Corrine – I’m sure turkey bacon would work if you could get it nice and crispy. I’ve heard that if the bacon isn’t super crispy, it has a really weird chewy texture in baked goods.
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Corrine — January 14, 2011 at 2:11 am

Thanks Jen! I’m going to give it a try!
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Evan Thomas — January 14, 2011 at 2:28 pm

This has just about everything that I would want to go together. Awesome recipe!
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Medifast Coupons — January 14, 2011 at 4:10 pm

This is certianly a unqiue mixture of tastes and textures, but it comes together nicely. Definatly a must try!
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darcyeats — January 14, 2011 at 6:22 pm

Chocolate..caramel…bacon…PERFECTION.
I am infatuated with the perfect smoky/salty addition of bacon into sweet baked goods. So delicious. Of course, I’m kind of a fan of adding bacon into just about anything.
Great pics, def wanna try these out!
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kitchenmisfit — January 16, 2011 at 1:01 am

Sorry the cupcakes didn’t turn out like you wanted. Have you ever tried the bacon/chocolate cupcake at Cherry Bomb Bakery in Brighton? They are fantastic!