Married to Medicine

Married to Medicine

Monday, March 24, 2014

Life-Changing Chocolate Chip Cookies

Um, guys...  This is IT.  This THE cookie recipe to END ALL OTHERS.  And I've tried all the others.  I don't know if it's the combination of cake and bread flour (cake flour being finer; bread flour ensuring it's sturdy) or the unsalted butter with coarse salt and sprinkled sea salt (drawing out the savory), or the "aging" of the dough, or what.  But this is THE last and only chocolate chip cookie recipe you will ever need.  EVER.  EVER!!!




As written, this makes a huge batch.  That's not a problem at all because you basically keep the dough in the refrigerator - where it seriously only produces better cookies with each passing day - and make hot fresh cookies on demand.  And by demand I mean… like, twice daily.  And yeah, you might want to get your hands on some pasteurized eggs (try Whole Foods) so that you don't get sick from the dough you inevitably sneak.  Unless, of course, you're trying to cure some sort of ailment by consuming raw animal products.  If that's the case, a refrigerator full of this stuff is exactly what you need.  Just don't expect it to cure any of the illnesses it, um, causes you.  I digress...

Life-Changing Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups minus 2 tbsp cake flour (8.5 oz)
1 2/3 cups bread flour (8.5 oz)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda 
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt (Kosher or Sea Salt)
2 1/2 sticks (1.25 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar (8 oz)
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 pounds (20 oz) bittersweet chocolate discs, chunks or feves, at least 60% cacao (see note)
Sea Salt

Place flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.  Whisk together.

Mix butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each.  Add vanilla.  Reduce speed to low.  Add dry ingredients until just combined (5-10 seconds).  Mix in chocolate.  Press plastic wrap against dough - so it doesn't dry out - and refrigerate at least 24 hours.  (It still tastes great if you make a few right away… but it really does get even better each day).  

Bake at 350 after sprinkling each cookie lightly with sea salt; they are intended to be eaten warm and fresh.  If you don't already have one, you MUST get an Oxo cookie scoop - makes it so fast and easy to get perfectly even cookies.  The instructions say to use parchment paper and the friend who sent me this recipe says they're most amazing with a Silpat silicone nonstick baking sheet (on Amazon).  But I've been baking these daily and too lazy to keep up with the parchment.  Might check into the baking sheet.  [Update 6/15/16: YES, you need the baking sheet!!  Read the reviews, is a total game-changer for *all* types of cookies!!].  Anyway, the recipe says to bake 18-20 minutes but I only baked for 9.  Not sure what's up with that.  It did take me more time the day when I made the cookies straight from the refrigerator, but generally I let it sit awhile so it's easier to scoop.

Either way, these are ridiculous.  

Note:  Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate, from which this recipe was originally adapted. Valrhona feves can be found in the chocolate section (not the baking section!) of Whole Foods, or on Amazon.  Like the disks, they are outrageously expensive.  I did use them in the pictured cookies (feves) but only made half a batch.  I usually just use the Ghiradelli 60% chocolate chips and it's still pretty incredible. I might try a batch with just half or 3/4 of the chocolate called for... because I love the cookie part too.  I'll let you know how it turns out if I do.

Super soft, slightly chewy, and slightly crisp.  All in one.  Somehow.

Divine, melty, dark dark chocolate.

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11 comments:

  1. Lisa - how many cookies does this make? Apologies if I missed it. These look really amazing!

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    1. I don't have an exact count, and I think I make the cookies smaller than some do. What I would tell you is that the recipe as written is essentially a double batch, and the amount of chocolate called for is the amount in two standard bags of chocolate chips. I've been halving it for my purposes but because the dough keeps (and you can freeze it too) it's not a bad thing to make a full batch. Hope that helps!

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  2. What is the difference between cake flour and bread flour? I would love to make these but not sure I want to keep multiple types of flour around.

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    1. I'm pretty sure that cake flour is ultra-fine, whereas bread flour offers more substance. I don't know for sure that it matters, but you can see a visible difference between the two flours when they're in the bowl and it's different from all-purpose flour as well. I occasionally make cakes and there is one bread recipe and a cinnamon roll recipe that I make that call for bread flour. So I do keep them around … but I'm still not sure it matters.

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  3. The short answer: 17 oz of all-purpose should give you a similar cookie.

    The long answer:
    Flour is graded by protein content:
    Bread Flour: 14-18%
    All-purpose: 10-12%
    Cake Flour: 7-8%

    Most of the protein in the flour when mixed with water will form gluten.
    The gluten is what gives bread 'chewiness'. When mixed wet the gluten binds to other gluten to form chains, so the longer you stir the longer the gluten chains and the tougher the final product will be (up to a point).
    This is why for cookies, cake, pancakes, etc where you want a soft product you mix the dry and wet ingredients separately then when mixing together only do so the minimum amount.
    So if you mix the cake and the bread flour really well (dry), it should be nearly the same as all-purpose.
    However I suspect that if you try to not mix the two flours too much you will get pockets of relative chewy surrounding pockets of relative softness.

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  4. These look SO good! Hope all is well!!

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  5. How long have you kept the dough for? We're looking to make some today before coming up to see you guys for the weekend.

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    1. You could totally do that! We've kept ours for several days!

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    2. They're so good, and it's really nice coming home and being able to put them in the oven without any additional work lol

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