Recipes

The best recipe ever for that quintesennial American food, the Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Ingredients

2 cups minus 2 tbl	cake flour
1 2/3 cup	bread flour
1 1/2 tsp	baking soda
1 1/4 tsp	coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks	unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 2 tbl	granulated sugar
2	large eggs
2 tsp	vanilla
1 1/3 lbs	dark chocolate, 60% cocoa

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Directions Fold in your chocolate until evenly added throughout the dough. Press plastic wrap against the dough, making sure it is completely covered, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, or as long as 72 hours (I left mine for 36 hours). This is an important step, as it allows the gluten in the dough to loosen up (you know how if you beat your dough too much, your cookies will be rock hard? Allowing it to rest for a period of time helps to undo some of this damage). It also helps the cookies to not spread out too much; warm dough spreads, cold dough stays in nice, uniform circles. When you are ready to bake, bring the dough to room temperature so that you can scoop it out, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line and/or grease your baking sheets. Scoop your dough out onto the sheets. I used a #40 ice cream scoop, which is about the size of 2 tablespoons, but you can make them even larger, if you like. Do not press the dough down – let it stay the way it is. Sprinkle the cookies lightly with a bit of fleur de sel or sea salt. Bake 10-12 minutes for smaller cookies (mine took about 11 minutes), or 18-20 minutes for larger cookies. Allow the cookies to cool slightly on your baking sheet, then move them to another surface to cool completely. You can enjoy these warm, room temperature, or cold. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 2 months. Fold in your chocolate. Now, press plastic wrap down onto the top of the dough, being sure it is completely covered, and refrigerate for a minimum of 24 hours. I let mine go for about 36 hours, but you can let it go for as long as 72 hours. This is an important step! Now, when you are finally ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and scoop the dough out onto greased and/or lined baking sheets. I used a #40 ice cream scoop, which is about the size 2 tablespoons. You can use something larger for monster cookies, which is always fun – it just depends on how many you want to bake. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and bake for 18-20 minutes for large cookies, or 10-12 minutes for smaller cookies (I think mine went for about 11 minutes). Allow your cookies to cool for a few minutes on your baking sheets, then move them to another surface to finish cooling completely (although you may just have to try one warm – they are amazing). Prep time: 24 hours Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 24 hours 20 mins Serves: 20 cookies

Sift together the cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium sized bowl and set aside. In the bowl of your mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add in the flour mixture, very gradually, until just moistened.

Serve with hot sour dough bread. Serves 10.