Chocolate Chip Cookies
A three page article in the New York Times about chocolate chip cookies? Well, OF COURSE, I’m going to link that! Cookies recently surpassed doughnuts as my favorite food, and so I sat up and took notice at some helpful suggestions for baking great cookies in this article.
On Maury Rubin’s recommendation of letting cookie dough set for 36 hours in the fridge before baking:
“Oh, that Maury’s a sly one,” said Shirley O. Corriher, author of “CookWise” (William Morrow, 1997), a book about science in the kitchen. “What he’s doing is brilliant. He’s allowing the dough and other ingredients to fully soak up the liquid — in this case, the eggs — in order to get a drier and firmer dough, which bakes to a better consistency.”
And of course, there’s the mouth-watering description of cookies baked after 12, 24, and 36 hours in the fridge:
At 12 hours, the dough had become drier and the baked cookies had a pleasant, if not slightly pale, complexion. The 24-hour mark is where things started getting interesting. The cookies browned more evenly and looked like handsomer, more tanned older brothers of the younger batch. The biggest difference, though, was flavor. The second batch was richer, with more bass notes of caramel and hints of toffee.
There is also a discussion of the right chocolate to use; if you are following along at home, there’s no reason to special-order fancy baking chocolate. Oh, no. Just use Guittard Milk Chocolate Maxi Chips, available at your local grocery store. To enhance melting, chop them into halves, or lightly food process them. I eat the darn things for a small snack, and they’re the best widely available sweet chocolate I’ve found.
Aaaand the recipe:
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
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 (see note)
Sea salt.
- 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.
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.
Note: Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods.
Comments
Vanessa
The best part of this cookie recipe (and pretty much all cookie recipes) is the BUTTER. And not that fake margarine or spread stuff—you need the real unsalted sweet cream butter. It is fantastic and helps the crumbs stick to your fingers better. Because who wants crumbs on the floor where they (should) become inedible?! If you give a mouse a cookie.. :)
Markoe
I love you.
Alexander Micek
Good to see my enthusiasm is shared! Well, I’ll have to photograph some chocolate chip baking efforts for tumbledry.