Hellobee

Last weekend, the New York Times front page featured a gem of a recipe that has changed my baking life. I’m only half kidding! These chocolate chip cookies took me from a full on Tollhouse girl to someone who is slowly building an ability of patience, by letting the cookie dough ‘marinate’ in the refrigerator overnight. Ha! These cookies are hands down the most popular item I bring to parties, work events and my husband’s hands on the occasional Monday evening (he does the cooking and I provide the sugar in our marriage). The original recipe is a good one, but over the last year, I’ve tweaked a few things and standardized a few procedures that ensure a quality cookie every time. You can see the original recipe here.

Chocolate: The recipe calls for one kind of (very special, hard to find) chocolate. I’ve found that two, more readily available chocolates make for an AMAZING flavor. The first: Guittard milk chocolate chips are the only ones I buy now – they are $3.99/bag at our local Wegmans, and usually close to about $4.29/bag at Safeway. More expensive that Nestle, but they are larger in size, have a lower melting point, and have fewer ingredients/higher quality.

I then complement the milk chocolate with a high % cacao chocolate. I’ve found that Ghiradelli 70% dark chocolate bars and 86% chocolate bars are exquisite. I break them into about sixteen pieces – breaking each small square into quarters – and they are a good contrast to the milk chocolate of the chips. The size of the chocolate pieces in this recipe is key – you need BIG pieces of chocolate because the recipe calls for these to be BIG cookies.

big pieces of chocolate and sea salt!

Salt: The recipe calls for course sea salt. I like to use a mix of course and fine sea salt – 1 teaspoon of course and 1/2 teaspoon of the fine – in the dough. This way, if I don’t get to let the dough have the ample time to meld together in the fridge, I still have a more even distribution of saltiness when they bake. I always use the course salt on top, though, before baking!

Refrigeration: The recipe calls for keeping this wrapped in plastic wrap for at least 24 hours. I’ve found that you can vary this, with differing results on the final product:

• Less than 12 hours: less chewy, crispier cookies but don’t taste ‘fresh’ very long
• 24 hours: a good balance of chewy and crisp, last longer
• 48-72 hours: the best bet for good chewiness, a good outer crisp and maximum freshness as time goes on

Helper, wrapping up the dough for refrigeration.

Baking time: The longer you bake, the crispier. Of course! I have found, though, that it’s better to err on the lower side of the recommended baking time – 18 minutes – as the maximum, unless you have very cold-running oven. I usually do 17-18 minutes for my first batch, but 15-16 for subsequent batches because the oven is warmer/more evenly distributed in heat. The longer baking time removes some of the chewiness of the cookies, in my opinion, and they keep baking after you take them out. I’d recommend baking three at some various times to see what you prefer and to find your oven’s perfect baking time!

Do they have to be SO HUGE? Nope. I’ve made these cookies in slightly-larger-than-normal but not massive or huge sizes, and just adjusted the time I bake them. I almost like them more at a ‘medium’ type size – bigger than normal but smaller than the 3.5 oz the recipe denotes.

Keep it crispy: We tend to love the balance of crispy outside and chewy inside, so rather than letting the humidity keep these guys soft, I tend to put them in a tupperware but not fully enclose them overnight so they keep crispy.  This never would have worked for me in the very dry environment I grew up in the intermountain northwest, but in the mid atlantic, it works well!

Anyone else loyal to this recipe? What tweaks have you found part of your success? If not this, which is your stand by chocolate chip cookie recipe?