Chewy cookie or crispy biscuit - South Dakota sunflower seed cookies

[Julian Fisher]

I am after a consistent bake...

 

I found a lovely recipe for South Dakota sunflower seed cookies. It's an American recipe and the quantities are in cups. I have tried converting to weight by weighing the various ingredients in the same cup (not all at the same time!) but still I'm not getting a consistent result.

 

Everyone likes them whether they are crispy on the outside and slightly chewy in the middle or crispy all the way through. I just want to be able to determine how they will come out of the oven before I put them in.

 

Cream together sugar (270g based on 1 and a half cups) and butter (200g, 1 and a half cups)

Add flour (375g, 3 cups) and baking powder and baking soda (bicarbonate of soda?)

Add desiccated coconut (100g, 1 cup) and sunflower seeds (120g, 1 cup)

Mix well.

At this point the mixture resembles sand. It can be squeezed together but only makes for very fragile balls. To get a more manageable dough I've tried adding milk, water, butter, olive oil and an egg in different batches. I think adding the egg is the easy but lazy way out and unnecessarily increases the cholesterol content. The olive oil seems to work well but I fear making an oily biscuit, likewise adding extra butter.

Having shaped the mix into 1 inch balls, bake at gas mark 4 for 15 minutes until delicately browned.

 

Have I got the proportions right? How can I bake a biscuit/cookie which is consistently crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside?