One day, while I was searching for inspiring cooking blogs, I stumbled upon Orangette. She had made Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from Jacques Torres that ran in the New York Times July 9th. Not only were these cookies big and beautiful they were made with cake flour, bread flour, kosher salt, bittersweet chocolate, and sea salt sprinkled on top. In my quest to make cool food, and because sea salt sprinkled on top of my cookies definitely constituted as cool, I ran to Albertsons, purchased cake flour and decided I would make them as soon as I got home.
They were, in my opinion, the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie I have ever devoured. The only problem was that my daughter, Brooklynn, hates semi-sweet chips and bittersweet was not an improvment as far as she was concerned. Those cookies were gone in a day so the next week I made them again with milk chocolate chips. I didn't have bread flour so I substituted all-purpose and a bit of whole wheat in it's place. Waiting 24-36 hours for chilling wasn't an option either so I placed the dough in the freezer while I cleaned up the kitchen and then scooped the chilled dough onto baking sheets. While one pan baked one waited in the freezer. I'd remove the pan from the freezer into the oven and the next pan in line would then go into the freezer. Worked perfectly! They tasted heavenly.
2 Cups minus 2 Tbsp. Cake Flour
1 2/3 Cups Bread Flour or All-Purpose (Mix it up with some whole wheat if you want)
1 ¼ Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 ½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 ½ Teaspoon Coarse Salt (Kosher)
2 ½ Sticks Unsalted Butter, Softened
1 ¼ Cups Light Brown Sugar
1 Cup plus 2 Tbsp. Granulated Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 ¼ Pounds Milk Chocolate Chips
Sea salt
Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk well; set aside.
Using mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Reduce mixer speed to low; add dry ingredients, and mix 'til just combined. Add chocolate chips mixing to incorporate. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate 24 to 36 hours. The dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove dough from refrigerator allowing to soften slightly. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a standard-size ice cream scoop, or a 1/3 cup measurer, scoop six mounds of dough onto baking sheet spacing evenly. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, and bake 'til golden brown but still soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack for 10 minutes, then place cookies onto rack to finish cooling.
Quick, pour a glass of milk and eat before they dissapear!
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