The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie(s) I Have Ever Had

I don't mean that in a "I'm the best and I bake the best cookies" kind of way...it's more of a "This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever used and I'll never use another one ever again and you should definitely try this" kind of way. Of all the places, this is on the nytimes website, featuring the one and only Jacques Torres and his delightful chocolate discs. I've mentioned these once before here when I made 8 pounds of cookie dough, froze it, and flew it to California for a wedding. I've made them umpteen zillion times since and they sell like hotcakes. Or, get eaten for free like hotcakes. 


OR sell like hotcakes, like we did for Saturdays bake/stoop sale! 2 for a dollar, 1 free with any purchase (or if you have cute, well behaved kids)

Those things on the bottom are blueberry bars... or foreshadowing. Anyways the first secret: 60% cacao chocolate discs. They allow for entire chocolate layers in your cookie, versus tiny chocolate pockets. 

The rest of the ingredients are as follows:

"Holy crap, that's a lot of stuff!" you might be thinking. The recipe calls for multiple kinds of flour and sugar, and those tortilla shells you see in the back are not going into the cookies. Cookie tacos yay!


Chocolate Chip Cookies
via nytimes.com - adapted from Jacques Torres

8 1/2 oz cake flour (or 2 cups minus 2 tbsp)

8 1/2 oz bread flour (or 1 2/3 cups)

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

10 oz (or 1 1/4 cups) light brown sugar

8 oz sugar (or 1 cup plus 2 tbsp)

2 large eggs

2 tsp natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 lbs 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate disk

Sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Now it's scale time! Again, this is a great investment. Especially when it comes to that molasses-y brown sugar. This cup, should it be packed? Semi packed? Unpacked, like my apartment? Do it folks - consistency is your friend.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Woooo flour mountain! It's my favorite Disney attraction.

Set this to the side. Cream butter and sugars together until very light and fluffy. 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.

Lock your boyfriend in the other room, or else he will do this:

Don't worry, this dough was not used to make cookies. It met its demise too fast. Hey guess what? It's chocolate time!

I have no idea why this recipe only claims to make 1 1/2 dozen cookies - look at all that dough! I only whipped up one batch and I had at least twice that many. 

Look at this cavernous cookie dough landscape. I feel a bit like David Attenborough, exploring, spelunking... let's go in for a close up.

It's so beautiful, isn't it? Wait - oh no I'm lost! How do I find my way back out? We've gone too far!

Just kidding. Secret #2:  Cover and refrigerate this dough overnight. I once ignored this piece of advice as I like to do from time to time and I learned the hard way. They just kind of... melted, into a nondescript burnt puddle. Sounds good right?

So the next day all you have to do is bake. I like to do tiny golf ball sized dollops, as seen here. Also, it's important to flatten the chocolate discs so they're horizontal, and therefore melt into delicious chocolate-y layers. 

Last but not least, the revealing of secret #3. Sea salt. In addition to the sea salt you put IN the cookie dough, sprinkle some on top of each dollop before they enter the oven. This makes the magic happen.  Pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes (I started checking them at 13 minutes because I'm a paranoid manic who loves fewer things more than under-baked cookies).

That's what true love looks like, in case you were wondering.