Recipe #10: Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (with bonus Failed Bake!)

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. I did not buy any super special ingredients. No chocolate feves, no Maldon salt.

The Recipe

Yes, we are out of order with this recipe - the aptly-named “Perfect” cookie. I made these a while back and they were very good! But I forgot to document it all, so had to make it again, how awful.

And my second attempt was, actually…awful! I have no idea what I did, but they spread…and spread…and kept spreading:

They didn’t taste bad, but had no texture (although they might make a decent ice cream sandwich).

So, I made a 3rd batch. No, you cannot move in with us.

Whatever I did wrong before did not go wrong again.

Since I am not a fancy ingredient baker, generally, here is my list of exceptions: no super-fine sugar, just “regular old whatever granulated is in the bin” sugar. And no hand-chopping a block of chocolate into “large chunks” when I have bags of chocolate chunks in the cupboard, I mean, come on. I am sure there is a reason to chop your own, but I really could not think of one that was good enough other than to make the claim of “hand-chopped artisanal chocolate” and we just…don’t do that here.

The recipe is different in that it does NOT call for mixing the butter and sugar until “fluffy,” like most cookie recipes. The resulting dough is a little grainy, but delicious. AGAIN with the place the balls of dough on the baking sheet and chill overnight - who has that much space in the fridge? - so I just shaped them and plopped them in the plastic container to chill.

The baked cookie has a nice chewy texture. A little sweet, to me, but it’s a very very good cookie and has the potential to crack the top 5.

The Reviews

Resident reviewers rated this cookie an 8-8.5/10.

Guest reviewer CR is back with us, and seems to imply that his rating could increase as he ate more cookies - and, hey, that seems fair and accurate. “Had to look back and compared notes on this one. Another trip back to previous times, but even better! A direct cookie, no salt, with chunky instead of long standing chocolate chips. The flavor of the cookie is delicious, like a slight tuneup on days past! A full 8.5, but with a second one I may go straight to a 9 on this one!! Thanks for a real treat!!”