New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies (Treats for Co-Irkers)

I'm fairly certain that all food bloggers eventually get around to blogging about the world famous chocolate chip cookie recipe from the New York Times. This week seemed like a good week for me to throw in my two cents and tell you what I think about the recipe. And, since these cookies are going to work with hubby tomorrow, we'll be able to find out what the co-irkers think of them too. (They're brutally honest, I'm telling you!)

This review is slightly tainted however, because upon reading the recipe and making my shopping list for the ingredients, I failed to notice that the dough must rest in the fridge for 24 hours before baking. Well, today was going to be my shopping day this week and since I now had to make the dough yesterday in order to bake the cookies today, it was either make do with the chocolate I had on hand, or go to Wal-Mart in my pajamas yesterday morning to buy the special chocolate called for.

In hindsight, which still remains 20-20 even though the rest of my vision has gone to hell in a hand basket, I could have gone to Wal-Mart in my pajamas because if your local Wal-Mart is anything like my local Wal-Mart, you see people in their pajamas all the time. And oddly, what concerns me more than the fact that they're wearing pajamas is the fact that the pajama tops and bottoms don't match. What's this world coming to? And more importantly, why do I even notice such things?

OK, back to the tainted recipe. The original recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate. I had semi-sweet and I had unsweetened chocolate, so I met somewhere in the middle by grating the unsweetened chocolate and combining it with some chopped semi-sweet chocolate and some semi-sweet chocolate chips. That wiped me out of the total 1 1/4 pounds of chocolate I had in the house. Has necessity become the mother of intervention? I'll let you be the judge and decide if I need help.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (modified slightly from the New York Times)

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 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
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, grated
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. 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 all chocolate into dough using a wooden spoon. 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.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. The original recipe recommends using 3 1/2 ounces of dough per cookie and baking six cookies per baking sheet, but I thought that made for an entirely too large cookie. So I dropped the dough by tablespoonfuls on to the prepared cookie sheet, then sprinkled lightly with sea salt and baked until golden brown, but still soft, 10-12 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 3-4 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.

The verdict? I think these were quite possibly the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. I also think that by grating the unsweetened chocolate, it made for a more consistent chocolate flavor throughout the entire cookie. This is definitely a recipe worth repeating.