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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Hungry Bear Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hungry Bear cookies originated in Fresno, California. Deryl Bear spent 20 years perfecting his cookies. His first store was opened in 1983 at Fig Garden Village. That year, Hungry Bear was voted "best cookie", in the Fresno Bee.

This recipe was given to me from my mother-in-law. She obtained it through channel 47 TV. I always thought it was weird for a popular cookie shop to give out their recipe. So, since they volunteered the recipe, I see no reason not to pass along this fabulous chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I want to point out something. When making cookies, sometimes the instructions are given to beat until light and fluffy. Here is a photo of what light and fluffy looks like. Notice, it is not flat and grainy. In essence, you beat the sugar and butter for several minutes, until the granules of sugar have dissolved into the butter, like this:


I have a feeling this post is going to be filled with tips! Another bit of advice I would like to give, when any recipe calls for vanilla, get real vanilla! Do not waste your money on expensive imitation vanilla extract. If you happen to have a Sam's Club or Costco membership, you can buy the real vanilla for the price of the imitation stuff sold at the local grocery store!

Now, since this recipe yields 56 cookies (using a 1 3/4" cookie scoop), I flash freeze the scooped cookie dough, onto a baking sheet. After the dough is frozen solid, I shrink wrap, for future use. This is convenient, for our family, as we are not going to eat 56 cookies in a short amount of time. Really, do you want to eat cookies, the next day, that are stale? Or do you prefer your cookies baked fresh? I think it's a no brainer that people enjoy freshly baked cookies, over stale cookies pulled out of Grannie's cookie jar.




A quick mention on shrink wrapping systems. I've picked up several Food Saver brand systems from yard sales. They work good. They work just as good as this Kenmore system. In fact, the Kenmore works better! That is why I use it. On the Food Saver's, I noticed problems with the seal. They like to fall off! Which is really annoying. I will devote a post to shrink wrapping at another time.



HUNGRY BEAR CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup un salted butter, softened
1 Cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 Cup sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla
2 Large eggs
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Teaspoons baking soda
1 Cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
3 Cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside. In a mixing bowl, on medium speed, blend together butter and sugars, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, on low speed. Incorporate flour into mixture. Add walnuts and chocolate chips. Chill dough. Drop by spoonfuls on a baking sheet. (I used a 1 3/4" cookie scoop). Bake at 400 for 8 minutes. You want these cookies on the pale, tan side. Not golden brown. Yields 56 cookies. Bake what you are going to serve. Freeze the rest!

39 comments:

  1. Biggest fights we had at home was Kathrine making cookies and Milton wanting them before they cooled. By the way don't use knock off chocolate chips. The reason we had "toll house" cookies was because Mr. Mitchell, a broker for Nestles gave us the 12 pack of chocolate chips along with Choco-bake. We were spoiled.

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    1. Good tip! Never use knock off chocolate chips! Why risk your cookies tasting terrible? It would be a waste of time, and money to use substandard cooking ingredients. It also goes against my cooking style, which is to bring food to it's fullest potential. Thanks for that tip.

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  2. I am going to try these!!!! And I want a shrink wrapper!!! Lol

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  3. This recipe is great! My family loves these cookies!!!

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  4. Hi there! I just love love hungry bear cookies. We live just 20 miles from the fig garden store. However, in looking at the picture you show, these do not look like hungry bear chocolate chip cookies. Theirs are darker in color.....
    Yours are quite light. I'm sure they are delicious, but they do not look like hungry bear. Maybe we're missing a secret ingredient--lol. What would make a cookie dark looking? Molasses? But their cookies don't taste like molasses..........hmmmmm.

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    1. This is their original recipe. If you want them darker, simply cook them longer.

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    2. Try dark brown sugar instead of light brown

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    3. let the butter into room temp and brown it on the pan

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    4. Then you would have brown butter chocolate chip cookies. They are delicious! Alas, not Daryl’s recipe.

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  5. The recipe was printed on Hungry Bear Cookie letterhead, and distributed by the local news channel. This was decades ago. Maybe they have updated the original recipe.

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    1. The original owner, Darel Bear, sold the company years ago. That is when he distributed the original recipe. I believe they now use a different recipe.

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  6. I remember when they shared the recipes in the early 90's. I was given a copy but lost it in a move. They had also shared the Sugar Dream recipe. Any chance your Mother-in-Law may have a copy as well.

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    1. Ooo yes my brother had chocolate chip recipes and the sugar dream…I moved as well but I’ll love for it. My brother was ,as a customer, friends. He would go to buy big batches for the IRS pot luck and chummyed up so much when he was transferred to Wash DC the hungry bear recipes was given to him. He also had Loves barbecue sauce recipe. So good! He said he used Breyer rabbit molasses, not grandmas molasses.

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  7. I do have the Sugar Dream recipe, as well. I plan on posting it soon.

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  8. http://therighteouskitchen.blogspot.com/2014/03/hungry-bear-sugar-dream-cookies.html

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  9. Be sure to edit that - the original recipe calls for unsalted butter.

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  10. It is unsalted butter. The salt is added later, in the recipe.

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  11. There will never be another original Hungry Bear Chocolate Chip cookie with the exact texture, taste, color and size because Deryl Bear did not use local store ingredients nor home kitchen appliances. He used professional ovens and mixers and insisted on procedure, procedure, procedure. I personally typed the two Channel 47 recipes per his request, however, notice that the recipes were no different from most cookie recipes. So why give out such recipes? The public asked for them but without the procedures, ovens and vendor ingredients they never tasted nor looked the same. That's why our cookies had a trademark name.

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    1. I worked for 4 years at Hungry Bear in the early 90’s including at the “factory” where we prepared the mixes for the stores. I can confirm what the previous commenter said about Mr. Bear’s “process”. This is the original recipe that he released but even I didn’t see what “brand or exact product” was used for ingredients. At the time I worked at the factory there was only one person aside from Mr. Bear at the factory who knew everything and she had signed a confidentiality agreement. I’ll try to take pictures later to share the official Hungry Bear process we were given when mixing, scoping and and shaping the cookie dough.

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  12. Good information. Try as we might, we are never going to get the recipe exact. It's fun to try, but even better, to stop by and enjoy the original!

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  13. I worked with Daryl a few years back and he told me what's missing from this recipe is to use unmelted (just soft) butter and once everything is mixed, ball it out to cookie size and put that in the fridge in a closed Ziploc bag for 24 hours before you bake. I've tried with and without fridge and being in the fridge is what gives it their textbook dark appearance.. I don't mind giving this out as Daryl sold the company years back.

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    1. I’ve read this secret before, a very long time ago. published before he became famous, the cookies must be chilled.

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    2. Yes that was a key point he insisted on. In fact he would make surprise inspections and would always know by looking at the cookies if we hadn’t chilled them first. It was one of “cardinal cookie rules”

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    3. It’s amazing to have former employees contribute to this thread. Thank you!

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  14. Thank you, Marcus Gutierrez! I think portioning the cookies, then freezing, may have the same effect. I notice baking frozen cookies gives a good rise.

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  15. Are these the same cookies you can buy just outside of splash mountain at Disneyland?

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  16. I found recipe in Taste of Home magazine. Baked for 10 minutes and they turned out very brown. Like brownies.

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  17. In the taste of home magazine recipe, they have adjusted the flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. They’ve also adjusted the cooking time. Try this recipe. It has been authenticated. Keep an eye, when baking. You should just see some browning around the edges. Put an oven thermometer, in your oven; to check the temp.

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  18. My Father loved the fig cookies they used to make. I've never had them, so I don't know what I'm trying for. Do you think if I used this recipe with figs it would be close?? Thanks in advance.

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  19. I've never tried the fig cookies. I will look for them, next time. I do not think you can make the chocolate chip cookie work, without a lot of modifications. Figs are sweet, so sugar would be reduced. There are no chocolate chips, I'm assuming. I would amp up the walnuts. Brown sugar would caramelize and pair with the figs. Is it a soft, or crispy cookie? I'm thinking a whole new recipe.

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  20. I personally know Deryl. It would be interesting to see what he thinks of this

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    1. What's there for him to think about? He gave the recipe, and the local news station aired it. They mailed the recipe, to those that requested it. Pretty cut and dry.

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    2. Do you use salted or unsalted butter?

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    3. I think he’d be flattered that we still love his cookies. He not only published this and the sugar dreams recipe but there was a time when he had the article framed and displayed in the Fig Garden store

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    4. I would be flattered that people love the Hungry Bear Chocolate Chip Cookie. We are blessed Daryl Bear shared the recipe.

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