The Quest

I'm on a quest to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I'll keep you posted.

Nuts. Gotta have nuts to approach perfection.

My wife disagrees and so do a lot of women, although I'm almost perfect.

Chef - I'll give you a tip - don't use chocolate chips.

Agree with the need for nuts. Used to use walnuts, now use pecans.

I also like a handful of Skor toffee bits thrown in, but I can only find those at the Sav-On in White Rock. Butter Brickle bits don't work as well. Make for a chewy yet crispy cookie.

Pull them out just shy of being done. Put them on aluminum foil to cool. Keeps 'em chewy.

If you can beat the one on the back of the Tollhouse chip bag, let me in on it!

So? How goes the quest?

I think I've nailed it. Next time I'll write it down.

We really like the recipe published in the NYT for chocolate chip cookies. Doesn't actually use chips, but rather chocolate disks and extended resting times. We make fresh cookies at the 24, 48 and 72 hour timepoints so we have hot CC cookies over three days while only making the dough once. It has replaced the Toll House recipe in our house. YMMV
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html

Yeah, that recipe was my jumping-off point. He's good.

If you improve that one, your recipe will be my new standard. Can't wait to try it.

Chef, what criteria are you using?
I like mine slightly crispy on the outside but soft and slightly gooey on the inside.

Chef, what criteria are you using?
I like mine slightly crispy on the outside but soft and slightly gooey on the inside.

Reminds me of "The Far Side" cartoon with two polar bears reaching their paws into the top of an igloo and one of them says "I just love these things. Crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle..."

We found ours a while ago, but they're certainly not a universal favourite. They take a bit of wrangling too, or they'll spread all over the place. But Pete particularly likes them, because they're mostly chocolate held together with a bit of crispy cookie, with no nuts. This was what I posted a while back :

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).

Edit: original recipe had 1.5 cups (200g) semisweet choc chips and 1 cup (130g) walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped.

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.

Recommend chocolate chunks and black walnuts.

Darn you, Celia, now I have to make these today!

(It was the photo that did it.....)

That man of yours is going to get fat, Cynthia!

I was thinking today that the recipe might work a bit better if you give it a little time in the fridge before you ball it up and bake, although given that it's absolutely freezing in Montana, that might not be necessary!

I was thinking that very thing, Celia, as I have another cookie dough that I always refrigerate before forming the cookies. Makes them somewhat prettier.

Glad to hear you and Stuart liked them, Cynth. Did you take any pics?

Chef, what criteria are you using?
I like mine slightly crispy on the outside but soft and slightly gooey on the inside.

Reminds me of "The Far Side" cartoon with two polar bears reaching their paws into the top of an igloo and one of them says "I just love these things. Crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle..."

Ha, oh, I miss the Far Side. I think my favorite was the two guys stranded in the desert, comparing their forearms, "No, Bob, I think I'm tanner than you."

Or the one with the dog behind the laundry room door saying, "Oh please, oh please" with signs saying "Kat Fud" pointing into the dryer.

I could go on forever. (Just like Seinfeld episodes!)

...I think my favorite was...

Looking over Abe Lincoln's shoulder to the podium, with the audience in the background. His notes curl over the top of the podium, so you can't read the beginning, but you can read "... so the bartender says 'Hey! That's not a duck!' (wait for laughter).....Four score and seven years ago...."

I had a large poster of the "Boneless Chicken Ranch" on the wall in my kitchen at the school.

Well, the Quest is over for me.

Let me say that when I began I knew there would be no "One Cookie" for everyone. I was looking for one that pleased me. That's a lot different from my attitude when cooking for the public.

Since I'm not much of a sweets eater I had no particular prejudices or thing I was looking for.

I didn't monkey much with Torres' recipe. I used 60% cacao disks and pecans in the end and dark brown sugar instead of light brown.

Took me about six tries to get what I wanted. It was a lot more fun than when I worked in my step-father's bakery when I was a teenager.