RCP: The best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted

I used to think Mrs Field's recipe for Choc chip cookies was the best, until I tried this recipe yesterday. I have eaten 6 giant cookies in the last 24 hours, and am now feeling seriously sick.

From a fantastic little book called "The Great Book of Chocolate" by David Lebovitz, these are called Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies, and is apparently the recipe from a (now closed) shop called "Blue Chip Cookies" in San Francisco. As amended by me (to exclude nuts, since my son is allergic) :

1/2 cup (100g) white sugar
1/2 cup (120g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick (115g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.25 cups (175g) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2.5 cups (330g) dark chocolate Callebaut callets (you could just use cooking choc bits, but the Callebaut is designed to melt, and you get this gooey mass of melted chocolate in the cookie).

Interestingly, this recipe has about twice the chocolate to other ingredients as the Mrs Fields' recipe does.

1. Preheat oven to 300F (150C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Beat cold butter and sugars together, until just combined. The secret is that the butter should still be cold. I find if you beat until the butter is completely creamed, you get cookies that spread too much. I'll usually have some small lumpy bits of butter left in my finished dough.

3. Mix in egg, vanilla and sifted baking soda.

4. Stir flour and salt together in a separate bowl, stir choc callets into the flour mix. Tip the whole lot into the batter, and mix until just incorporated (no bits of flour left). DO NOT OVERMIX.

5. Scoop balls of dough (2 Tbsp worth - say 2" balls) and place them on tray, about 4 inches apart.

6. Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Remove from rack, let it sit for a few seconds, then transfer and cool on rack. Cookies will be large and fragile when hot. Eat any broken ones, as they obviously have no calories. Store in an airtight container. If you live alone, freeze some, or you will be the size of a bus. Makes 16 - 20 large cookies.

Celia...I'm making these today!

My favorite Chocolate Chip cookie recipe is from an old Cook's Illustrated magazine. But, I'm willing to put this recipe to the test!

But, I'm willing to put this recipe to the test!

Anything for science, eh Traci? I had pretty much the same thought! One can never try too many chocolate chip cookie recipes!

Celia...I'm making these today!

My favorite Chocolate Chip cookie recipe is from an old Cook's Illustrated magazine. But, I'm willing to put this recipe to the test!

I'd love to see that recipe if you've ever got a minute to post it please, Traci ! I'm on a quest for the ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie..

Thanks, Celia

Celia, do you prefer a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie, or a crispy one?

Now, John, that IS an interesting question.

I USED to really like the cakey, chewy cookie, and spent a lot of time and research trying to get that right. I experimented with using different flours, but without great results (plain or all-purpose really does seem the best), and finally read somewhere that the secret is to try and keep the butter cold - apparently if the butter is too soft or melts too much during the initial creaming process, you'll get a thin, spreading cookie. So now, for the kids, I make a chewy cookie with choc bits that hold their shape when baked. In order to get these right, the dough really has to be quite firm when I'm finished, and sometimes I'll pop it into the fridge (in balls ready to bake) for a while to chill before baking. I think this is also why you get good chewy cookies from freezer dough, so now when I make a batch of dough, I freeze 2/3 of it in rolls for later use.

However, Pete and I have gradually been moving towards a crispier cookie in preference, though not a hard, crunchy one. That's why both of us liked the above recipe so much - we ended up with a cookie that was half way in texture between cookie and brandysnap, and because I used choc bits in it that melted, they were also quite gooey.

I have to stop talking about this now. It isn't 8am yet, and I want another cookie.

Here's a link to someone who's made the recipe as it was originally published (ie. with nuts), in case anyone's interested. And another one here!

I see we are all suffering for our craft. I am so proud of the sacrifices (cough cough) we make for our work here.

b

OK, non-baker here, so have many grains of salt at hand. But... if my dim memory serves, can't the texture of the cookie be controlled by the type of sugar used?

1/2 cup (100g) white sugar
1/2 cup (120g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick (115g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.25 cups (175g) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2.5 cups (330g) dark chocolate Callebaut callets (you could just use cooking choc bits, but the Callebaut is designed to melt, and you get this gooey mass of melted chocolate in the cookie).

Maybe it's just the cynic in me but I don't see a LOT of difference in CCC recipes. The recipe I use calls for 1 cup of each sugar and 2 eggs; maybe a little more butter (2 sticks?) but I'd have to check. I use 3 - 4 cups of chocolate, too. Valrhona rocks!

I work with Dave Liebovitz from time to time and hold him in high regard. I think that he is a fantastic baker and chocolatier but his CC cookies never floored me. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that mine are better, only that I don't see a whole lot of difference in his or anyone's recipes. At the end of the day it's just a cookie.

Now I did once have a CC cookie with bacon in it. I wasn't too sure of it at first but when I tried it I found that I kind of liked it. THAT was different.

rwj

[Jenise]

Celia, when I was a kid my best friend's mother made the only homemade chocolate chip cookies I'd ever had, which automatically made them the best. They didn't get as dark as many chocolate chip cookies do (I am thinking they also used white sugar, like yours), they sat up firm and high and didn't spread as much as the famous Tollhouse recipe (which have seemed oily to me), the salt was noticeable so they didn't seem as sweet as most, and they were firmer, not chewy. I adored them, and as a little kid could duplicate Mrs. Zishka's cookies at home so I know there were no fancy techniques involved--mix the stuff in a bowl and bake. Sounds like this recipe you found gets into that same textural ballpark, but with a whole lot more chocolate.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that mine are better, only that I don't see a whole lot of difference in his or anyone's recipes. At the end of the day it's just a cookie.

Just a cookie ? A great cookie is a work of art, Robert ! But then again, I didn't grow up eating these, so maybe I'm not as blase about them as other people.

Whilst a lot of cookie recipes are very similar, they seem to produce very different results depending on how they're made. Baking on a greased pan will produce a very different cookie to one which is baked on an ungreased pan. Beating softened butter will produce a different cookie to beating cold butter. And different people can make up the same recipe and end up with completely different results.

Anyway, I'm enjoying experimenting...and my family are enjoying taste testing.

Stuart, thanks for the tip, I never considered playing around with the sugars !

Celia

Celia...I'm making these today!

My favorite Chocolate Chip cookie recipe is from an old Cook's Illustrated magazine. But, I'm willing to put this recipe to the test!

I'd love to see that recipe if you've ever got a minute to post it please, Traci ! I'm on a quest for the ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie..

Thanks, Celia

Of course, give me few days to dig it out. I'm on the road right now.

Okay..made your cookies last night. Mine spread out all over the place. And while I love chocolate, I still wanted a little more of the cookie part. To bring up Stuart's comment about sugar, I know the Cook's Illustrated version was almost all brown sugar.

I'm sorry they spread, Traci ! They were pretty big cookies anyway - here's a photo of how mine turned out :

cookie.jpg

[Jenise]

I'm sorry they spread, Traci ! They were pretty big cookies anyway - here's a photo of how mine turned out :

cookie.jpg

Gorgeous photo, Celia, it's making me seriously hungry. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but a good home-made chocolate chip cookies are one of the irresistable exceptions.

May have to whip up a batch of Mrs. Zishka's.

May have to whip up a batch of Mrs. Zishka's.

I'd love to see them, Jenise ! Any chance of a photo or recipe, please ?

Ta, Celia

[Jenise]

I'd love to see them, Jenise ! Any chance of a photo or recipe, please ?

Ta, Celia

Sure, though they probably wouldn't impress anyone but me (you know how those childhood fixes are). And the instructions are pretty rudimentary--Mrs. Zishka's daughter was my best friend in first and second grade, so I wrote this down when I was just 6 or 7 and didn't know from what, probably from a verbal description (Mrs. Z made these and some molasses cookies every week, they were the only two cookies she made, and the cookie bins stayed full because there were six children). My mother didn't bake at all, so the never-empty homemade cookie bins were absolutely magical to me.

1 c. shortening plus 2 tblsp
1 t vanilla
1 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs well beaten
3 c flour
1 t salt
1 t soda
1 pkg chocolate chips

Mix together until creamy shortening, vanilla and sugar, also brown sugar. Add eggs then beat. Add sifted dry ingredients then stir. As you stir, add chips. (Don't beat with mixer now.) Bake 375 for 12-15 minutes.

Just a cookie ? A great cookie is a work of art, Robert !

I always though this was more akin to art:

Rose Cake.jpg

Or this:

yuck cake.jpg

rwj

Just a cookie ? A great cookie is a work of art, Robert !

I always though this was more akin to art:

Rose Cake.jpg

Sigh. Thank you for enlightening me. Obviously, I'm a pleb.

[Jenise]

Celia, your post was so tempting I whipped up a batch of Mrs. Zishka cookies last night. I used butter in place of shortening, which resulted in a darker cookie than I remember, and though the cookie was perfectly yummy--it was, after all, a cookie!--I have to admit that the real thing didn't match up to my memories of them OR the more recent memory of some homemade chocolate chip cookies someone brought to Wine Tasting two weeks ago. Ah, another childhood icon falls....

Celia, your post was so tempting I whipped up a batch of Mrs. Zishka cookies last night. I used butter in place of shortening, which resulted in a darker cookie than I remember, and though the cookie was perfectly yummy--it was, after all, a cookie!--I have to admit that the real thing didn't match up to my memories of them OR the more recent memory of some homemade chocolate chip cookies someone brought to Wine Tasting two weeks ago. Ah, another childhood icon falls....

I know exactly what you mean, Jenise. It's like watching reruns of the Six Million Dollar Man.

Actually, your cookie was probably better..

...and though the cookie was perfectly yummy--it was, after all, a cookie!

Hmmm...that sounds oddly familiar.

rwj