Chocolate Chip Cookies of Awesomeness
I admit it: I am a bit of a food snob. My Dad raised me to be extremely particular about my food. This leads to problems since my food MUST be a certain way: my maple syrup has to be heated, my chocolate must be dark, and my cookies should be big, soft, and tasty.
Previous forays into the art of cookie baking left me unsatisfied. Usually my cookies ended up as small, brown, hockey pucks; tasty-ish immediately out of the oven but discarded once they cooled and solidified. But I continued to truck on, convinced that the holy grail of chocolate chip cookies lay just around the corner.
These chocolate chip cookies took every other cookie I’ve had and smashed them out of the park.
The recipe has an odd combination of cake and break flour rather than all-purpose, and an express order to refrigerate the cookies overnight. As someone in a household where half the cookie dough disappears as soon as it is made, following this instruction was difficult. But the resulting cookie was amazing and I will never make a different chocolate chip cookie again. The recipe is below.
Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from NYTimes.com and Jacque Torres.
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
- 1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used kosher)
- 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (I used a combination of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chips)
- Sea salt
- Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl and stir completely with whisk. Set aside.
- Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Stir in chocolate. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours (extremely important; don’t let the dough dry out). Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
- Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.