The thing is, when it comes to baking, I love to try new recipes. I especially love searching for just the right chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have tried many and I do mean many. For now I have a lot of favorites for different reasons. But this one truth remains: I always love a warm, fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookie – no matter what – and so, I can say honestly this was one of my favorites. Good news, the family loved them too.
This recipe I tried out yesterday was pretty darn good- close to perfection. It fits the description of “crispy and chewy”. I’ll say, the downside: the dough must chill for 24 hours – and all that means is I have to plan ahead for these babies. Guys, sometimes making cookies is a spur of the moment thing for us around here, so I guess that means these will be special occasion cookies. But I feel like it will be worth the wait.
Anyway… here are the cookies… don’t they look perfect? See that crispy top, but the gooey-chewy down inside? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I found the recipe on the new York times site – it is definitely not unique to me or anything!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour (8 1/2 ounces)
- 1 ⅔ cups bread flour (8 1/2 ounces)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (2 1/2 sticks)
- 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar (10 ounces)
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (8 ounces)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
- Sea salt
(My changes: I did All purpose flour in total, not the cake flour/bread flour combo. I did not use sea salt – these cookies have a good balance of salt already with the coarse salt included in the batter. I just used ghiradelli semisweet chips – 1 1/4 pounds of beautiful chocolate!)
Instructions:
- Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. 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. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. 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.
(My changes : I chilled maybe 18 hours – it seemed long enough. I scooped the dough prior to chilling – have you ever tried to scoop chilled dough? It’s very hard!! The cookies did not need to bake for 20 minutes – I think we made it to about 16 minutes.)
daily portion 