Intro

My brother challenged me to bake my way through the New York Times Top 11 Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes, mostly so maybe I would send him some to “taste-test.”

And why not?

I printed all the recipes, scanned the ingredients and spent about $60 on the stuff I did not have, like cake flour and coconut sugar - not including the cookie scoop that I have always wanted and finally bought. And no, I did not order the Jacques Torres bittersweet chocolate disks, or the Valrhona féves sold at Whole Foods. Kroger “Private Selection” 62% cacao chocolate chunks would have to do. As would the easy-to-find Swan’s cake flour.

The Recipe

So, a couple of notes here.

I used the volume measures not weight - mostly because that is how I make cookies.
Swan’s cake flour smells weird and although it worked fine, I would probably upgrade this. Unless all cake flour smells weird? I dunno.
I used kosher salt, since it was the only coarse salt I had other than sea salt
1 1/4 lbs of chocolate chips is… a lot.
This is a heavy, stiff dough - especially after your refrigerate it.
It tastes amazing. Yes, we eat raw cookie dough (homemade) here.

I made minor adjustments - I used my brand-spanking new cookie scoop, which I think is about 1 1/2 tablespoons and ended up with 4 1/2 dozen cookies. I cannot imagine making 18 cookies out of this, they would be HUGE.

With a smaller cookie, the bake time is about 13-15 minutes.

The Reviews

Me: I cannot believe these words are even coming out of my mouth, but…these cookies are too chocolaty. Who knew that was even a thing? But the balance is off - the chocolate overwhelms the delicious chewy dough. When I make them again (oh yeah, they will be in the rotation), I would reduce the amount of chips to 15 oz (I used 20 oz).

Husband: Really good cookie, too much chocolate.

Son: These are great. Maybe less chocolate next time, but it doesn’t keep me from eating them.

Coworker 1: I love the salt. It’s like a pretzel but better, because it’s not a pretzel.

Coworker 2: These are great. Make sure you bring some from the next batch. No need to bake them.