How do I get a firmer less cake-like cookie?

Question

This is the recipe I used last year, for Orange Cappuccino Drop cookies The cookies tasted good but were way to cake like in consistency for my liking.
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup strong coffee
3oz unsweetened chocolate
1tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Are there any easy substitutions or deletions that would change the firmness of this cookie?

Here's the rest of the recipe, it may shed some light on the results. combine brn sugar and butter, beat until fluffy. add sour cream, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and egg. Blend well. add flour and baking soda. mix well. drop by tsp's full on cookie sheet and cook for 5-7 minutes at 375 degrees.
And here's the frosting that goes on top of the cooled cookies for the person who was interested in making the cookies themselves.
mix together 2cups powdered sugar, 2 TB melted butter, 1 1/2 tsp orange peel, and 2-3 TB of Milk. Frost cooled cookies.

Answer 1

Cookies are made primarily with butter, margarine or shortening.

Fats play a major role in the spread of a cookie--whether a cookie keeps its shape or flattens in the oven. Shortening and margarine are stable, and will help cookies keep their original unbaked shapes.

Butter melts at a much lower temperature than other solid fats--it melts at body temperature, resulting in a “melt-in-your-mouth” burst of flavor.

Cookies made with butter tend to spread out. Butter is essential in certain cookies, such as shortbreads; if they don’t hold their shape, consider lowering the amount of butter, sugar, or baking soda in the recipe.

The amount of fat also affects the cookies: in general, more fat equals flat, crispy cookies while less fat equals puffier, cake-like cookies. Whipped spreads are not suitable for baking: use solid sticks of margarine instead.

Answer 2

You're already using brown sugar instead of white (which makes it softer instead of crisper), the moisture quantity looks good for a heavier cookie and the baking soda isn't too much. The only thing I can recommend is either another egg or a little less flour. Or, it might be as simple as how you mix it together.

I always mix my cookies in the following order - butter and sugar, whipped together, then the egg and vanilla. Then the wet stuff. The dry ingredients (flour, soda) sifted together and added last. If you dump it all in together and mix it all at the same time, it will totally change the texture. I accidently did that once with the original Tollhouse Cookie recipe and the cookie came out much firmer than mixing it in the above order. So, I would start with tossing it all in the bowl together and mixing it and see if that change is enough before altering the recipe.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

You problem is too much liquid. As another suggested, cookies are fat, sugar, egg and flour. Increase the fat to 1 c. butter. Even butter and margarine differ in the amount of liquid/fat ratio. I would guess to reduce the sour cream to 2-3 Tablespoons, adding by the tablespoon until desired consistancy. Use 1 T coffee granules dissolved in 1 T water or better yet leave off the water and dissl. in the vanilla.You have to have the soda for levening or they will be flat. Also to correct the acid level of the sour cream. All baking is balancing the chemistry of the products used.

Answer 4

I have a similar one that did the same thing.. what I did was add a little Cinnamon to the mix and not as much baking soda as it called for.... I also changed from an air bake pan that I use for all my cookies and just made them on a basic cookie sheet. Something else that might help would be using the end of a spoon to pat down the scoops once they are on the pan.. Making them slightly larger but also thin so the cook faster and are more crisp and cookie like.

Answer 5

Add a 1/2 tsp. cream of tarter. That should firm them up. You could also try adding MORE flour...like a half a cup. The denser the batter, the harder the cookie.

Answer 6

maybe ... by "deleting" baking soda?
by the way, I think I am goiing to use this recipe for me too :)