We talked to founder and baker George Kuan of Bang Cookies—home to the fluffiest, ooiest, gooiest cookie out there—about how to make epic cookies at home.
George Kuan founded Bang Cookies in 2016 with the mission to disrupt the cookie community. It's crystal clear to anyone who munches on his cookies that they're ridiculously delicious. The ingredients are organic, too, so you can feel pretty good about that monster of a cookie you're about to eat. After 12 years of recipe tinkering, George has mastered that big, soft, fluffy cookie and has created a gooey masterpiece that's offered in all different flavors and types. (I mean, just LOOK at the video below.) Soooo, we're granting him official cookie-guru status.
Here are George's four best tips to up your cookie game.
While George has a laundry list of specific elements he takes into account when baking (like the moisture-content in each ingredient and the air), he says everyone should pay attention to the type of flour they use and how much protein is in it. Different types of flour have different amounts of protein, which alters the consistency of the cookie. You can find protein levels in the package's nutrition facts. He recommends all-purpose flour for fine, delicate cookies. It has 9-11% of protein depending on the brand, and he suggests finding a flour in the middle, in the 10% range. If you use bread flour, the cookie is "almost like a scone—it's rock-hard on the outside," says George. But if you like it that way, keep on using that bread flour!
If you have a recipe you've tested at home and you like it, stick with the same brands of ingredients you used. As we learned, the protein- and moisture-content of flour, sugar and other ingredients can vary a lot between brands, so a cookie can come out completely differently if you use a new brand of an ingredient. However, if you don't like how the cookie came out, try switching up brands to try to change the consistency.
On to the fun stuff(ing)! Bang Cookies recently came out with a "stuffed" cookies line that consists of a PB&J and a Caramel Sea Salt Chocolate cookie (above). Their ooey, gooey cookie just got even ooier and gooier. George shared how we can make our own stuffed cookies at home. Cut the dough of one cookie into two portions: one portion should be one-third of the total, and the other two-thirds. Use your thumb to make an indent in the bigger portion. Use a mini scoop ($6, Amazon) to put the stuffing in the hole, and then cap it with the one-third of dough. You want the stuffing to be about a third of the weight of the cookie—"one ounce is more than enough," says George. The dough ratio is important to measure out because otherwise, your stuffing can leak out from the cookie while it bakes.