On Chocolate Chip Cookies
and a hunt for the elusive perfect recipe
For as long as I can remember, I’ve taken chocolate chip cookies very personally. It was summer of 2005 and Food Network’s Bobby Flay reigned supreme. My cousin Joey and I spent an entire summer in my aunt’s kitchen creating new recipes, trying techniques we saw on TV or in magazines, and even filming our own little cooking show (giving thanks right now that our uncut film of “Don’t Sous the Chef” never made it off of our camera and onto the internet). We started in the morning, and, since we were 15 and not great in the kitchen just yet, it would take us an entire day to get dinner on the table. Thankfully, all of our kitchen work paid off since Joey is now the Executive Chef at the Three Sister’s restaurant at Blackberry Mountain, and there are a couple thousand of you reading my blog and newsletter recipes each month.
It was that summer we discovered our favorite cookie recipe and I fell in love with baking chocolate chip cookies. Tucked in one of my aunt’s recipe binders was a recipe for “Rum Chocolate Chip Cookies” and we made a batch at least twice a week that summer. They were extra thick cookies filled with Nestle chocolate chips and you scooped the dough using a quarter cup measuring cup, thwacking it hard on the cookie sheet to get the dough out. My first perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Now, 15 or so years later, my personal definition of the perfect chocolate chip has stayed pretty consistent. I like thick cookies that are barely cooked in the middle, big puddles of dark chocolate, warm brown sugared-dough, and lots of salt.
But I’ve also come to learn that the definition of the perfect chocolate chip cookie varies from person to person. Some like them thin, some crispy, some love lots of chocolate, and others prefer a light smattering of chips. Everyone has different preferences and that is okay. In fact, it’s something to be celebrated! The world would be boring without a variety of chocolate chip cookie styles.
Enough talking, let’s get baking.
a few of my very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes
my current favorite:
maman bakery’s nutty chocolate chip cookies
Since moving to NYC, I’m making an effort to try as many different chocolate chip cookies as I can. A Levain Bakery girl through and through, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the chocolate chip cookie from Maman (Oprah’s favorite) is a very close second. After a little internet research, I found that they published their cookie recipe a few years ago and I decided to try it out.
It’s a really interesting recipe—all of the nuts and chocolate are beaten in the mixer BEFORE creaming the butter and sugar in a sort of backwards creaming method and there are no leavening agents at all. Because of this, the recipe calls for you to smash the cookie dough balls flat before baking so that they spread a bit. I learned is better to underbake these cookie rather than to over bake them, giving them a few extra minutes to set up on the pan before eating, and because of the rough edges, this recipe lends itself well to the “cookie scoot”. To scoot, use a large round cookie ring or cup (I use a deli container) to gently jostle the cookies into a perfect little round immediately after pulling them from the oven. Then let them cool for perfectly round cookies.
Of course I made a tiny change and used a mix of walnuts and hazelnuts in the recipe. I used 135 g of hazelnuts and 100 g of walnuts, instead of the macadamia/almond/walnut combo called for in the recipe.
a fall chocolate chip cookie:
Levain Bakery Copycat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
As I mentioned before, I love Levain Bakery cookies. They are gargantuan, thick, and filled with nuts and chocolate. Perfectly crisp on the outside and ooey gooey on the inside.
Last fall, I began working on a Levain-esque chocolate chip cookie, filled with pumpkin, nuts, and warm fall spices. This recipe quickly became one of my very favorites.
and few other chocolate chip cookie hits from over the years:
Rum Cookies, aka the cookie that started it all
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Monster Chocolate Chip Cookies with Molasses and Walnuts
Salted Almond Dark Chocolate Cookies (a chocolate chip adjacent cookie)
I want to know your thoughts on chocolate chip cookies! Do you like them thick and gooey? Thin and chewy? Share your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with me in the comments!