The New York Times Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

. Hello everyone!  How was your weekend?!

As you may know, my parents were down in Omaha for the last few days to visit and attend some CWS games.  We had yet another wonderful weekend together, but I'm pretty sure that happens every time they come to town.  If you haven't already guessed, I absolutely adore my parents and I definitely do not get to spend enough time with them.  Not in the least.

But as I mentioned in my previous post, we opted to celebrate Father's Day while they were here since we couldn't all be together on the real Father's Day.  So, naturally, some baking was in order.  Almost the instant I thought about what to have, I knew what I would be making.

Father's Day present? Two Twins tickets for the Fourth of July.  Cute little package adorned with Twins colors, not included.

See, it's kind of a running joke in my family that I can't ever make anything plain [or better put, 'classic'].  I tend to gravitate towards recipes with a slight twist here or there.  I can't help it, it's those interesting treats that always peak my interest.  But my dad is always requesting PLAIN chocolate chip cookies, PLAIN chocolate cake.  You get the point.  "I want plain chocolate chip cookies, no nuts, no foreign chocolate, no exotic fruits."  Ha, and that is a quote straight from his two lips.  Makes me chuckle every time ☺

So for Father's Day, I decided I do it my dad's way.  Hence, I bring to you the New York Times Best Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from Jacque Torres.  I've seen this recipe sprinkled throughout tons of different blogs.  And you know how it goes, everyone claims they have the best chocolate chip cookie recipe because of this or that.  But when I came across the post for this recipe on Cherry Tea Cakes and saw her picture of this delight, I couldn't say no.  Not really sure what it was about that picture, but it did me in.

And all I can say is that these really, truly, from the bottom of my heart, are the best chocolate chip cookies ever!  Again, not sure what is it about them [the marinating of the dough for 24 hours, bread and cake flour combo, chocolate disks, butter, butter, and more butter] but Jacque sure knew what he was doing.  And appropriately named 'Mr. Chocolate', I wouldn't expect much less from him.

The ending result is a chewy, thick, [extremely] chocolate-y, cookie.  Simple as that.  No bells and/or whistles, just a perfected chocolate chip cookie.  An American classic, just in time for the ultimate American holiday {dum, dum, dum...], the Fourth of July!  See, there's aaaaaaalways some logic behind my posts.  Well, sometimes .

The NYT Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

From Cherry Tea Cakes

Ingredients:

2 c. minus 2 tbsp. cake flour

1-2/3 c. bread flour

1-1/4 tsp. baking soda

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1-1/2 tsp. salt

1-1/4 c. unsalted butter

1-1/4 c. packed light brown sugar

1 c. plus 2 tbsp. sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/4 lbs. bittersweet chocolate disks

Sea salt (for sprinkling)

Directions:

1.  Sift cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into bowl.  Set aside.

Please note my new sifter, LOVE it!

2.  Using mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, light brown sugar, and sugar together until very light (about 5 minutes).  

3.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Stir in vanilla extract.  Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients; mix until just combined (5 to 10 seconds).  

4.  Stir in chocolate disks, carefully, so not to break them.

5.  Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate 24 to 36 hours (can be refrigerated up to 72 hours).

6.  Heat oven to 350°F.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

7.  Scoop 6 generous golf ball-sized balls of dough onto sheet.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

8.  Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown but soft.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: 1-1/2 dozen cookies

*My Notes:

• If you're finding a hard time believing my claim that these are the best chocolate chip cookies, I'm offering up the NYT article that's entirely about this baked goodie.  They used some serious amount of ink to describe every last detail from the inception to the finished product.  Must be kind of decent, right...?
• Chocolate disks can be hard to find sometimes [and a bit spendy].  I used Guittard Semisweet Chocolate Wafers, which I miraculously found at our local Williams Sonoma.  However, you can usually find them at specialty grocery stores or order them online through the Guittard website.  Also, if you can't get a hold of the wafers, here's a fun tip: Cherry Tea Cakes suggested tempering the chocolate you have and shaping it into a thin rectangle.  Freeze and then chop into large pieces.  Resourceful!
• When scooping the dough balls, I shaped them into thick cylinders.  I've mentioned this before in other recipes and I felt like it worked great this time around, too.