Chocolate Chip Cookie – THE best ever

I wasn’t aware of the infamous Jacques Torres chocolate cookie recipe until very recently. I was however, over-the-moon/ very smug to discover that it really isn’t too dissimilar to the recipe that I forever now use after a very happy accident. There is no predicting when a cookie craving will attack, but when it does come, attack hard it will. Now settle down for a slightly rambling story about how I came to accidentally discover cookie euphoria.

Cookie cravings do not discriminate between ingredients; any combination of flour, fat and sugar will do when the time strikes. In the midst of a cookie craving once upon a time, I came to discover that I didn’t have enough cake flour to follow my usual recipe. I did however have a whole bag of unopened bread flour. Combining this bread flour with the remaining cake flour was a stroke of genius that, at the time, I had no idea was a stroke of genius (probably doesn’t make me a genius then). All I knew that the cookies I made that day were some of the best I’d ever made, arguable the best.

Months later I come across Stephen Cusato’s (from Not Another Cooking Show) video about chocolate chip cookies. These cookies look real good. Like, perfect cookies, kind of good. The recipe originated from Jacques Torres and low and behold, he promotes the benefits of using a mix of all-purpose and bread flour to achieve ultimate cookie perfection.

Why, you ask? Well, here’s some science. Using a combination of two flours allows you to really dial in the perfect cookie texture. The ideal cookie is soft and tender in the middle but has a chew to it and a crunch on the outside, right? This is where the two flours help you out. Cake flour has a low protein content, which means low gluten, less elasticity and a more “cake-like” texture. Bread flour on the other hand, has a higher protein content, which, if you’re following, means more gluten, which equals more elasticity, thus chew.

Torres also recommends resting the cookie dough in the fridge for 24 to 36 hours. Don’t be tempted to speed up the process by skipping this resting time. If you want cookies today then find another recipe, or maybe make some biscuits. Leaving the cookie dough overnight, allows the flour to fully hydrate and gives the cookies a more complex flavour as the ingredients mingle with each other whilst you’re asleep…probably dreaming of cookies.

Chocolate discs with a high cocoa content are called for in this recipe, as opposed to the more conventional chocolate chips. Discs or fives as they are actually called melt in a way where the chocolate and cookie dough merge together, giving an overall more pleasure texture and in my opinion, aesthetic.

So, if you want to bake and eat the best chocolate cookie that you’ve probably ever eaten, follow this recipe to a T. I’ve not made any adjustments of my own, the entire recipe below belongs to and is written by the chocolate king himself, Jacques Torres. Don’t thank me, thank him.

Disclaimer, I cannot promise that you won’t eat the entire batch in one sitting.

Chocolate Chip Cookie – THE best ever

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Course: BakingCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups cake flour

• 1 2/3 cups bread flour

• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt, coarse

• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temp.

• 1 cup, plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla extract, pure

• 60 pounds 60% semisweet chocolate baking discs

• flakey sea salt

Directions

• Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
• Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream butter and sugars together for about 5-7 minutes, or until it becomes light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Add in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop chocolate discs in and incorporate them evenly into the dough. Roll the dough into balls using an ice cream scoop to measure them out approximately the size of large golf balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 24 to 36 hours. Alternatively you could bake them immediately, so it’s up to you.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Sprinkle each ball lightly with sea salt and bake until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown but still soft in the middle, 18 to 20 minutes. Wait 5 minutes for them to cool then transfer to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.