Starting with the widely accepted premise that they’re delicious, what does Mrs. Field’s cookies have in them that makes them so extraordinary? For awhile, a bogus “authentic” recipe for Mrs. Field’s chocolate chip cookies made the rounds on the Net.
Is the secret lots of butter? Undercooking them?
opium
also great in Chinese dishes
The secret of Mrs. Field’s Cookies is----
they’re made from people!
<Charlton Heston>By damn, dirty apes!</Charlton Heston>
I don’t know, but if you call them up, they’ll sell you the recipe for three-fifty…
It’s the type of shortening you use.
and Damn, I love Google!
I believe they have the recipe there.
I always heard it was butterscotch.
You now owe me $200 for that cookie secret.
Guin is right, it’s on Todd Wilbur’s Top Secret Recipes website, specifically here.
In the book, IIRC, Todd says that the magic comes from undercooking them and lots more brown sugar and moist ingredients than the bogus recipe.
There are commercial shortenings that add that weird rubbery quality to “home-style” store cookies and probably to Ms. Fields.
No big secret, but you can’t buy that stuff in small quantities. Like Griddle Glow.
And here I always thought the secret was selling them to people who had never actually eaten a home-made cookie!
Perhaps my taste buds are not strongly connected to my gonads, but while I could always see the appeal of Debbie Fields I was never that impressed with her cookies.
Mrs. Fields cookies taste like caked mud in comparison to a Canadian brand called Monsieur Felix & Mr. Norton. Sweet baby Jesus those are good.
Come live in Ireland and eat what passes for a cookie over here [sub]try not to break any teeth[/sub] and you’ll start to appreciate Mrs Fields.
I’m off to the USA today and Mrs Fields cookies are top on my list of things to bring back with me.
They’re cooked in convection ovens. The hot air blown around the inside of a convection oven makes a noticeable difference in texture and eveness of cooking.
Bring back loads, and freeze them. And give one to me. Have a good trip!
[Reverend Jim]Coca Leaves! From Northern Peru! 1978![/RJ]
Right actor, wrong movie. Chuck was in both PotA and Soylent Green.
William Poundstone, in either Big Secrets or Biggest Secrets says the secret ingredient is milk.
Soylent Green is…milk? 
You can buy a whole book full of official Mrs. Fields cookie and dessert recipes. We used to have a copy, but it got lost in the move. Her recipes call for real butter, heavy cream, etc., never shortening, margerine, or other substitutions.