Oct 8, 2012

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The beauty of making classic Toll House cookies is discovering how malleable the recipe can be. Once I'd learned that layering sheets of butter into dough makes puff pastry irresistibly flaky and rich, I resolved to create a chocolate chip cookie with equal textural appeal. I tried layering pieces of chocolate into cookie dough in a similar style, and I was delighted with the results: crisp around the edges, moist and tender inside, and so marbled that every bite contained the consummate balance of sweet dough, melting bittersweet chocolate, and crystalline salt. —Sarah Copeland, author of The Newlywed Cookbook (Chronicle Books, 2011)

Credit: Todd Coleman

MAKES ABOUT 2 DOZEN

INGREDIENTS

2 ¼ cups flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. kosher salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375°. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Combine butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat on medium-high speed with a hand mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add yolks two at a time, beating after each addition; add dry ingredients; beat on low speed until just combined. Transfer dough to a work surface; divide into 3 equal pieces. Flatten each into a 4″ x 6″ rectangle; wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes.

2. Place one dough rectangle on a floured work surface; sprinkle with half the chocolate. Top with another rectangle, sprinkle with remaining chocolate, and cover with last rectangle. Using a floured rolling pin, flatten rectangles into a 9″ x 6″ x 1 ½″ rectangle. Using a 2″ round cutter, cut out cookies; transfer to parchment paper�lined baking sheets, spaced 3″ apart. Gather scraps, reroll into a 1 ½″-thick disk; cut out more cookies. Bake, rotating baking sheets halfway through cooking, until lightly browned and set, about 15 minutes.

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This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #150

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Ratings & Reviews (5)

by CA2626 on 2012-10-09

This had better be some sort of alchemy that can't be detected by simply reading the recipe, since it calls for exactly the same amount of ingredients as a standard choc chip cookie (more, actually, since it's all yolks) yet yields half as many cookies, takes a lot more time and effort, and many of the resultant cookies are just standard anyway - re-rolling the dough is the same as mixing. The comparison to laminated dough sounds absurd, and the description of the cookies sounds... like any good chocolate chip cookie.

by MCRUEDY on 2012-10-09

I adore how complicated this sounds. I am very paricular about my cookie dough to chip ratio and the layering is a way for me to better control it cookie by cookie. I'm excited.

by SCHOEBDOO on 2012-12-09

Chopping the chocolate by hand and layering the chocolate and dough made for chocolate in every single bite, but if you are in a crunch, folding the chocolate into the final dough and spoon dropping the dough onto the cookie sheets will get you 3/4 of the same result. Still loved the recipe though!

by JHFRONTZ on 2012-12-11

There is, indeed, alchemy involved with this recipe-- the technique produces amazing cookies (reminiscent of the mentioned puff pastry). Though I had the same thought that re-rolling would turn them into regular cookies-- if done carefully, it actually results in more layers. The trick is to carefully place the scraps into a mass that preserves the layering (like the technique for making puff pastry). Towards the end, though, the dough does give way; the last few cookies are more traditional (but, as SCHOEBDOO noted, still great).

One glaring issue with the recipe: the quantity of cookies it produces -- as I was rolling them out and cutting them, I was like "if this is really supposed to be 1-1/2 inches thick, there is NO WAY this will produce 2 dozen cookies". So, I re-checked the recipe (both in print and online) and confirmed the dimensions-- they produce a 54 in^2 surface that is 1-1/2" thick. Using a 2" cutter, you can only get about 17 cookies (54/Pi = 17) and even then only if you've been perfect in the rolling/cutting.

When I make these again (and I will), I'll be careful about letting the chocolate fall out onto the baking sheet (I had a bit of scorching from where the dough didn't spread) and I'll try to chop my chocolate a little more uniformly (so that it doesn't poke through the dough during the rolling).

by AEGIS2K on 2013-02-24

Very good recipe! I followed it exactly and the end product was as promised... Crispy outside, chewy inside, marvelous! I would reduce the sugar a tiny bit though, maybe a cuarter cup less.

A quick tip. Dont bother cutting the cookies round. Just cut the whole thing into squares of 1". They will round off when baking and save time on prep.

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