A few weeks prior to the birth of Evelyn, our friends Nathan and Sara welcomed a beautiful baby boy. We visited them a few times during the weeks that we eagerly anticipated the arrival of our own little one. At the final visit, a couple days before Evie's birth, Nathan gave us a package of what may have been the most beautiful chocolate chip cookies I'd ever seen. They were huge, golden, and had a ton of chocolate chunks in them.
Fast forward a few weeks, and Nathan, Sara, and their little guy were coming to meet Evelyn. I asked about the cookies, sure that they purchased them in a local bakery and eager to connect with their source. Well, it turns out that Nathan made them! I had to get the recipe. Turns out that the recipe is one published by the New York Times. I found a link to the recipe on one of my favorite baking blogs, Cookie Madness (thanks Jenn, for getting me turned onto this blog!).
I had Mike do a taste test between a salted and non-salted cookie. He liked them both equally, but said that the salted one tasted a little more "peanuty". About 2/3 of the way through baking these cookies, I figured out that I could easily bake for a bit less time and have them turn out much prettier and chewier. If you made it this far, and didn't get sucked in browsing the Cookie Madness blog I linked to earlier, here is a direct link to the NY Times recipe. Just click here.
I've thought about that recipe so many times in the past 5 months, but figuring out how to manage both a baby and a batch of cookies baffled me for a while. Also, these puppies require at least 24 hours refrigeration of the dough prior to baking. Let's face it, folks, I am happy if I plan ahead for what I am having for lunch, so planning ahead for this recipe just wasn't happening.
Well, I finally got my act together! I made the dough a couple of days ago and am baking them tonight. I wanted to have a couple of plates ready for Christmas Eve, when we host a dinner at our house, and Christmas day, when we go to Mike's mom's house.
I had so much fun making these cookies. It may be because the baking experience is a bit different than my past chocolate chip cookie adventures (two kinds of flour! chocolate disks! sprinkle cookie with salt before baking!). It also may be that I am enjoying having a bit more time on my hands to bake, now that Evie is more independent in her play (or could it be the 7 o'clock bedtime that we just started, which makes me feel like I have so much more time in my day?). Regardless, these cookies are a baking adventure.
Here are some photos of the process. I don't have the fanciest of cameras or other equipment to create really pretty foodie pics, so excuse the amateur nature of these photos!
The batter, before adding the dry ingredients.
I mixed it for about 5 minutes at a pretty high speed,
resulting in a very fluffy consistency.
The batter, with the dry ingredients mixed in and ready for the chocolate chips.
I used Ghiradelli 60% cacao chips, and didn't bother hunting down the disks.
These chips are a bit more like a disk than your standard chocolate chip.
I used 3 ounces more chocolate than the recipe called for,
just because I was going to have a small amount of chips leftover.
Besides, a little extra chocolate never hurt anyone, right?
I also found that the batter alone was very salty.
However, once I added the chips, the chocolate really balanced out the saltiness.
(sorry for the novel)
BTW, I fully appreciate the irony of using a Weight Watchers scale to measure out the ingredients for these bad boys.
The batter, ready to refrigerate.
I ended up refrigerating mine for just about 48 hours.
The first batch in the oven (above),
and midway through baking (below)
These are the first two batches that I baked.
The recipe called for
"making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie".
I forgot to do that on the batch above, but remembered on the batch below.
I don't know if the pictures do it justice, but turning the pieces really did make for a much more attractive cookie.
Is your mouth watering yet?
The cookies got progressively bigger as I baked them.
The last cookie measured about 5 1/2 inches in diameter.
