Chocolate chip cookies

Milk's classic companion. Dessert. After school snack. Late night bite. Breakfast.

I imagine it would be difficult to find someone who doesn't have fond memories of eating chocolate chip cookies as a kid. My mom would often make chocolate chunk cookies with walnuts (yum) following the classic and foolproof recipe on the bag of Toll House chocolate chips. These cookies were the ultimate treat after school and the ultimate comfort when my mom mailed them to me my first year of college.

I actually hadn't made chocolate chip cookies until this year - I had always just wanted my mom's; but I desperately NEEDED cookies one day so I thought, "here we go." I decided to try David Leite's recipe on the NYT Cooking site. At first the recipe seemed overly fussy: bread flour and cake flour (two things I don't regularly keep at home)? let the dough rest for at least one day but up to THREE??

I gave it a try and the cookies, of course, turned out deliciously. However, since that first run I've made a few adjustments that I think make the process a little easier and the cookies a little tastier:

1. Thanks to the wonderful comments on the recipe I use all purpose flour instead of bread flour and cake flour.

2. I take about a third of the chocolate and finely chop it up. This fully distributes the chocolate into the dough and varies the texture - it's not just big chocolate chunks, you also get small tastes of chocolate in every bite.

3. Since I do not have a stand mixer (my ultimate aspirational kitchen item) I use a handheld electric mixer. This mostly works just as well but I end up having to add a tablespoon or two of water to bring the dough together. I hypothesize that it is because the mixing attachments I use incorporate more air than a paddle attachment (I'll get back to you after further experimentimentation).

4. I use brown butter. I knew I wanted to incorporate that warm, nutty flavor but I wasn't sure how to cream together the melted brown butter with the sugar until one of my closest friends gave me a great tip - after you brown the butter, put it in the fridge to re-solidify so you can cream it just like regular butter.

5. Scoop and freeze, scoop and freeze. This recipe makes a lot of cookies. I use a tablespoon to scoop the dough and line them up on a cookie sheet which I put in the freezer until they are frozen solid. Then, I put them all in a big freezer bag, so I can bake off a few whenever I have a craving for a fresh, warm cookie (just add a few minutes to the baking time).

A few nonnegotiables:

1. SALT! Obviously this should go without saying, but you must add some salt to the dough. Equally importantly, a sprinkle of flaky salt on the top of each cookie takes it over the edge.

2. Let the dough rest, whether in the fridge or the freezer. My mom always did this just because we knew it tasted better, but weren't really sure why. The Leite recipe recommends 1-3 days. I find I have the best results from putting the dough in the freezer. To learn why chilling the dough improves texture and concentrates flavor, read this really interesting blog post from King Arthur Flour on the topic.

Go ahead and make yourself some chocolate chip cookies - you deserve it. Whatever recipe you choose to follow, let me know how it turns out! Happy baking!

PS - while I love tasting cookie dough while I'm baking (yes I know it's bad for you, blah blah blah) I am hugely against this trend (and almost all food trends) where shops are selling edible "raw" cookie dough by the scoop. Yuck. Too much of a good thing is no longer good.