Food Failures: Cookie Science Secrets
16:20 minutes
No one will ever agree on what makes the perfect cookie. But two widely identified components of cookie quality are crispy, buttery edges, and a soft, molten, chewy center. In this episode of our Food Failures series, Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks, talks about the cookie tech wars of the 1980s, when food companies fought over their crispy, chewy formulations. And he advises home bakers on what sugars, fats, and flours to use for the perfect holiday cookie—including a special SciFri recipe based on Procter & Gamble’s original 1984 cookie patent.
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Segment Guests
Jeff Potter
Jeff Potter is the author of Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Cooks, and Good Food — Second Edition (O’Reilly, 2015) and a software engineer in New York, New York.
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About Christopher Intagliata
@cintagliataChristopher Intagliata was Science Friday’s senior producer. He once served as a prop in an optical illusion and speaks passable Ira Flatowese.