The way the cookie crumbles

This week was a friend’s birthday and I wanted to surprise her with a birthday treat. So I had some other people ‘casually’ ask her what kind of sweets she likes and it came down to chocolate.

While chocolate is a pretty easy choice for bringing a dessert, but the first thing that springs to mind was Chocolate Chip Cookies. Now if you know me like I know me, making the recipe off the back of the Nestle Toll House chips bag wasn’t going to cut it, by a long shot. Especially since the idea was to have a really great cookie. I am not saying those cookies are good, they aren’t, but I wanted something more. Something that really brought out the chocolate in the cookies & made them more than ordinary.

So that got me thinking about what enhances chocolate. I did some research and found there are a few things that do the trick. But I wasn’t convinced adding instant coffee, red peppercorns or chiles were the way to go necessarily. Maybe I was simply overthinking it? So I got back to the drawing board & grabbed about 7 or 8 different chocolate chips cookie recipes that had high rates and compared them, and yes I did include the Nestle Toll House one; it’s a classic and it was appropriate to be there.

A couple of things stood out on some unique recipes, one by Elizabeth Faulkner and the other boasting to be The Best NY Times Cookie. They both used bread and cake flour instead of AP flour. Now I don’t keep any other flours at home except AP cuz it is easy enough to create them from ingredients I have on hand. The other thing was resting the dough, at least overnight.

That seemed to make no sense to me – rest cookie dough? Why? Well here’s why. Like in pie dough, the flour needs to hydrate and because there is not actual water in the dough, it must get it from the eggs & butter. The water in them is more gelatinous, the one recipe explained so it takes more time to hydrate the flour. If you’ve ever made pie dough & let it rest in the fridge for ½ hour, you know what I mean as how different that time makes from before & after.

I also found that brown sugar enhances the chocolate too. Since more brown sugar lends to a chewier cookie, I replaced all of the white sugar with brown. For the substitution for the bread flour, I added 1tsp of Vital Gluten to each cup of AP Flour. I also added 1 Tablespoons of cornstarch to each cup of AP flour the recipe called for as cake flour (taking that tablespoon out of the flour measure on the AP for cake too – if that makes sense.) To mix things up a bit more, I used ½ semi-sweet chips & ½ dark chocolate chips, added butter extract with the vanilla extract & did include some instant coffee.

Now I know some of you are asking, what is vital gluten & butter extract & where do I find them. Vital Gluten is wheat protein flour; I buy mine either at the health food store or in the baking aisle with the Red Bob’s Mill product, usually by the yeast. Butter extract is a flavoring used to give a buttery taste to baked goods without having to add additional butter to the recipe. I find it either at a cake decorating store or even at my local Walmart in their cake decorating supplies area. However, the amounts are pretty small, so you could skip either one, but the cookies got rave reviews.

I made a double batch but had to bake one off immediately & couldn’t let it rest as I needed it the next day. That’s the one I brought in & everyone loved. With that in mind, each batch makes about 60 cookies.

*** Update - if you do let the dough rest, you lose about a dozen cookies. I just scooped by 72 hour rested batch and only got about 48 cookies***

Now that I’ve bored you with all of the technical details, here is the recipe I know you really wanted.

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Best

Makes about 60 cookies unrested dough; 48 cookies rested dough

 

 Ingredients:

• 3 ½ C + 1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. AP flour
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 2/3 tsp. vital gluten
• 1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 ½ sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
• 2 2/3 C packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. instant coffee crystals (optional – for a stronger chocolate flavor*)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. butter extract
• 10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 10 oz. dark chocolate chips

Preparation:

1. Mix together flour, cornstarch, gluten, baking soda, & baking powder into a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl (preferably of a stand mixer) cream butter, sugar & salt together (using paddle attachment) until very light, about 5 minutes.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure they are fully incorporated before adding the next.* If adding coffee, add after 1^st egg.
4. Mix in the vanilla & butter extract.
5. On low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, only 5-10 seconds.
6. Gently incorporate the chocolate into the dough.
7. Press plastic wrap against the dough and refrigerate 48 hours (at least 24, can be up to 72 hours). Dough can be used in batches, if desired.
8. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
9. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
10. Scoop golf-ball sized dough balls onto baking sheet, making sure to leave about 1” between each.
11. Bake 7 minutes, rotate pans & bake for an additional 7 minutes until golden brown but still soft.
12. Transfer sheet to a wire rack and cool 10 minutes, then move cookies onto the rack or other surface to continue to cool.
13. Repeat, as needed, and in as many batches as desired, until all the dough is used.
14. Eat warm and make sure you have a napkin near (for crumbs, melted chocolate, and the drool that will inevitably accumulate due to the overwhelming deliciousness)!