The Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

We have been on a journey long and perilous, through recipes exotic and quaint, in our search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie: foolproof and beautiful, caramelized crisp on the edges, and a soft, chewy, "mmm"-inducing center. I've tried recipes from the Joy of Cooking, gone through the highest rates ones in AllRecipes, tried them with oatmeal (Neiman Marcus chain-mail recipe), and scientifically varied ones (Cookwise). Most recipes are pretty good, but inevitably fall short: too cakey or too thin (Tollhouse), rich (David Lebowitz) or a bit bland looking. But I have two recipes that I think, with a bit of tweaking! may be the grail of Chocolate Chip Cookies. I invite you to give them a try.

The first:
There are some very good tips from a The New York Times article "Quest for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie." It describes the professional secret of aging the dough in the refrigerator from 24 to 36 hours, which allows the dry ingredients to absorb the liquid fully. This results in beautifully browned cookies with a complex caramel flavor. And it actually works!

These were delicious - rich, complex, and definitely gourmet. I thought that they were a bit on the rich side - you really can't have more than two - but they were Adam's favorite. I cheated and subbed all-purpose flour for the cake and bread flour, and a mix of chopped chocolate bar and chocolate chips instead of the chocolate disks. But do try the full 36 hour refrigeration. I tested them and they were good cooked immediately, great after 24 hours, but spectacular after 36 hours. A long time to wait for chocolate chip cookies - but worth it!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Jacques Torres, published in the New York Times, July 9, 2008

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

and for the contender....

These are my favorite thus far: simple, chewy, beautifully craggy. The next time I make these, I want to try aging them. I didn't have the patience today, however. I've had really good results with America's Test Kitchen recipes. If anyone's looking for a present to get me, they put out some good cookbooks and Cooks Illustrated Magazine. (hint hint!)

Thick Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
from America's Test Kitchen

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled until warm
1 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Adjust oven racks to upper & lower -middle positions & heat oven to 325. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside.

3. With electric mixer, or by hand, mix butter & sugars until thoroughly combined.

4. Beat in egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.

5. Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in chips.

6. Roll scant 1/2 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball. (This step makes the surface beautifully craggy looking, like bakery cookies. This step is also included in the Neiman Marcus recipe)

7. Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft & puffy (about 13-15 minutes)

8. Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking and place on wire rack to cool.

Makes about 2 dozen.

America: Land of the Eaters

Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia arrived on our television screens. It’s also less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of “Top Chef” or “Chopped” or “The Next Food Network Star.” What this suggests is that a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves — an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for.

Brilliant article by Michael Pollan examining the American attitude towards preparing and eating food in the New York Times Magazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html?pagewanted=1



The Food Network has helped to transform cooking from something you do into something you watch

What I wonder - how much of our attraction to food and cooking shows has to do with a nostalgia for a home we don't have the time for anymore? For the comforting clang of a lid on a pot of stew, the fragrance of garlic wafting upstairs, the sizzle of meat on a hot pan. There is meaning to these motions in which our daily tasks seem lacking.

I suspect we’re drawn to the textures and rhythms of kitchen work, too, which seem so much more direct and satisfying than the more abstract and formless tasks most of us perform in our jobs nowadays. The chefs on TV get to put their hands on real stuff, not keyboards and screens but fundamental things like plants and animals and fungi; they get to work with fire and ice and perform feats of alchemy.

Fascinating stats too:

The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income. Other research supports the idea that cooking is a better predictor of a healthful diet than social class: a 1992 study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that poor women who routinely cooked were more likely to eat a more healthful diet than well-to-do women who did not.

So the take home message: turn off the TV, put down the take-out menu, and take pleasure in the tactile and sensory pleasure of cooking your own meals!