I’ve baked a lot of chocolate chip cookies in my day. Plain ones, oatmeal ones, ones with walnuts––even ones with avocado and Greek yogurt.
Back in the day I probably would have considered myself a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur, but four years ago my dear friend Reamonn introduced me to The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie––arguably the best homemade chocolate chip cookies ever. Since then I’ve been a one chocolate chip cookie kinda woman.
Actually, let me rephrase that. I now only make one type of chocolate chip cookie. It’s nearly impossible to have just one of these babies.
Cue the drool.
The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie is what you think of when you envision the perfect, gourmet cookie––big, dense, super chocolatey, perfectly chewy and sprinkled with sea salt. As good as they are though, the New York Times cookie is a bit high maintenance. The diva of cookies, if you will.
The first time I made them myself I followed the recipe to a tee. I bought cake flour, and bread flour. I weighed out all of the ingredients and sifted until my hands were sore.
I’ve made this cookie probably a dozen times since––actually, it’s the only chocolate chip cookie I’ve made since––but my version is slightly less high maintenance.
Instead of bothering with two different types of flour, one with less gluten (cake flour) and one with more (bread flour), I now use good ol’ all-purpose flour which is a fairly close a balance of the two. It’s less complicated, less expensive and my tastebuds have yet to notice the difference.
Whatever you do though, don’t rush the dough. I made that mistake once and trust me, giving the dough a full 36 hours to hydrate in the refrigerator (or 48 if you can stand it) will take your cookies from mediocre to mind-blowing.
I promise they’re worth the wait.
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 15-20 ounces bittersweet chocolate disks (at least 60 percent cacao, I use Ghirardeli which you can usually find at Whole Foods)
- Flaky sea salt for sprinkling on top (Maldon is my favorite)
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
Cream butter and sugars together until very light, at least 5 minutes. Mix in eggs one at a time and then stir in the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed and add dry ingredients. Mix until just combined, about 10 seconds. Be careful not to over mix as this will develop the gluten and change the texture of the cookie. Stir in chocolate disks. Press plastic wrap against dough to prevent it from drying out and refrigerate for 36-72 hours. After this period, dough may be used in batches or frozen for later use.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop 6, 3-ounce mounds of dough (about the size of golf balls) onto the baking sheet. Press slightly turn the chocolate disks on top face-up for prettier cookies. Sprinkle lightly with flaky sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, about 18- 20 minutes. Allow baking sheet to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before transferring cookies to another rack. Eat warm, preferably with a big napkin and a glass of milk. Refrigerate raw dough for up to 72 hours or freeze for later use.
PS. The science behind the perfect chocolate chip cookie
Hi, I actually made these. The dough was very dry – I noticed this when I made it and it was painfully obvious after 48h. It was challenging to scoop it out.
The cookies remained much taller/fatter than the pictures (1 in tall). Tasty, though.
I noticed the original recipe has less flours, will try that instead.
Hi Florin! Glad you thought the cookies were tasty, and thanks for your feedback! The dough does appear to get dry for a couple of reasons, one being the cold. If your dough was not tightly covered air will get at it and indeed dry it out, but even if not, cold dough always seems a bit drier just because it’s cold. Second, and most importantly, while the dough sits in the refrigerator, the flour actually absorbs the butter and eggs over the course of those 48-72 hours so it will seem a bit drier than most other cookie doughs but the cookies should end up being more moist. That being said, no two cups of flour are the same so it could have been the flour. I’ll update the recipe and recommend letting the dough warm on the counter for a couple of hours to soften a bit for easier scooping, and giving the dough a little press with your palm for flatter cookies. Thanks again for stopping by. Happy baking! :)
Elle, thanks for your answer.
My previous comment was after baking just the first batch from the dough. In the meantime I baked 2 more, for less time, and I have to upgrade from “tasty” to “delicious” :-)
I will try the recipe again, for sure.
I had the exact outcome with the dough being very crumbly even after 72 hours in a ziploc bag in the fridge. The cookies baked without spreading and the resulting texture was soft and fluffy. I tried both baking the dough from cold and leaving it to thaw a bit at room temp with little difference. The initial disappointment of not producing flat chewy cookies was replaced by delight as the flavour was fantastic! Will try again in hopes of reproducing the cookies in your photos. Thanks for sharing!
These look so much more unique than your average chocolate chip cookie. Just by your fantastic pictures you can already tell they are well detailed in flavor!
Mmmm, yummy! I guess this means I’d have to plan ahead for my cookie baking, huh?
Haha, these are definitely not impulsive cookies… which is probably a good thing!
Wow! These look absolutely amazing! Will definitely be trying this recipe next. Oh, and these photos are absolutely beautiful!
fantastic photos! i’m totally feeling a “cookie friday” today!
Sea salt on cookies?! How have I never heard of this before? Thanks for sharing – pinning right now!
It’s a game changer, for sure!
Holy moly. Those cookies look phenom! I’ve never heard of the NY Times cookie but I like the looks of yours, and if they’re less complicated that’s even better!
im really bad at making cookies..i need to really have a great recipe up my sleeves. thanks for sharing these, i will have to make them sometime soon.