Really interesting article. I always use the Toll House recipe and everyone raves about my cookies. I think I'll try letting the dough rest for 36 hours (of course since I love raw cookie dough there might not be any left for cookies).

I have a Jacques Torres chocolate factory right by my office. I think his cookies have way too much chocolate in them, though the cookie part tastes great.

Thanks for sharing that article, Barb! It was very enjoyable, and of course made me hungry since I haven't had breakfast:-) I am definitely in the "dough chilling" camp, and I firmly believe that most cookie doughs, at least for drop cookies, benefit from a stay in the refrigerator. I don't make mine oversized though, they are about 2.5" in diameter.

Have a sweet and chocolaty day!
DONNA

Well I learned something new today, thanks! I'll try (emphasize try) to let the dough rest the next time I make chocolate chip cookies, but boy, what discipline that takes! lol.

Sally

I loved the article, thanks for posting it. I only let dough rest when it doesn't get used all at once. Certainly not deliberate on my part. Also, yesterday I made oatmeal raisin cookies (but used raisinets) and ran out of salt. Leave it to a baker to have two varieties of sea salt, but no mortons. I used a salt grinder and had coarse sea salt. It was a wonderful accident. The salt is almost a flavor, but not quite.
Jo

I don't usually plan far enough in advance to allow my COOKIE dough to rest for 36 HOURS! When I get in the mood to bake or to eat cookies, the mood doesn't give me advance notice! LOL I guess if I were making them for a specific event maybe, I could plan ahead... but more than likely those cookies are going into the oven as soon as possible.

I can't imagine the cruelty to the dough -- letting it sit in the fridge, calling my name for that long. I'd just have to answer!

Years ago a past acquaintance told me proudly that she was well known for her scrumptious chocolate chip cookies and that her secret was the use of bacon drippings in the cookie dough. (shudder!)

We're with Lowspark around here...when the mood for cookies hits, it hits NOW, and it's lucky if more than half the dough makes it to the oven, and the rest of the batch is gone while warm. I can't imagine my kids letting dough alone for 36 hours! (OK...It wouldn't just be the kids...)

But they do make the cookies sound wonderful, so it might be worth a try. With these darn counter-depth fridges, it'll be hard to hide it far enough in the back...

I disagree with some of the suggestions. (Not the dough chilling part). I don't like big cookies, they are overdoing it to me. I like the 3-4 inch ones. I'd rather eat two small than one large. And I like chips, chunks of chocolate. My brother is extremely picky about what he calls the "chip to dough ratio." I'm a little like him, I don't like them overdone with chocolate. Too much chocolate and you can't enjoy the contrast between the cookie dough flavor and the chocolate, which is what I like about choc. chip cookies. I'm wondering if any of the store bought chips are better than the others. I use Hershey's since they're made in my home state.

From and old Girl Scout campfire song:

Chocolate chip cookies, ya gotta have more.
You can bake 'em in the oven, or buy them at the store.
But whatever you do, have them ready at the door.
And I'll love you til I die.

Made of butter, sugar and flour.
You bake them in the oven 'bout a quarter of an hour.
But the thing that gives them their magical power,
Is the chocolate chips inside.

When I die, I don't want wings,
A golden halo or a harp that sings,
Just a book and chair, and someone who brings,
Me chocolate chip cookies all day!!

Too much chocolate and you can't enjoy the contrast between the cookie dough flavor and the chocolate, which is what I like about choc. chip cookies.

Amen to that! I am a bona-fide certified chocoholic. And sometimes I just want some pure unadulterated chocolate. But a chocolate chip cookie is more than that. It's a delectible joining of flavors of the buttery and oh-so-slightly salty dough in contrast with the bittersweet chocolate, AND the joining of the contrasting textures of the cookie vs the smoothness of the chips. Too much chocolate defeats that.

lpink,
I've been a GS and a GS leader but never heard that song before. Is the tune a familiar one? I'd love to be able to sing this song with my crackly off tune voice!

I'm wondering if any of the store bought chips are better than the others.

I have a chef friend who introduced me to the chocolate chips from Trader Joe's. The flavor is great and they are slightly larger than Nestle. Now I don't want to use anything else.

Two other things I have learned recently...

1. Leaving the cookies on the sheet to cool helps them stay chewy. Since I only have two cookie sheets I would slide the parchment paper with the cookies onto a cooling rack right out of the oven, but it seems the slower cool-down really helps the cookies retain moisture. It just is annoying for me because I have to wait to get the next batch in!

2. Letting the dough sit at room temp for an hour will make the cookies less greasy. This time gives the flour time to absorb the butter. I can't address what is absorbing the egg - and I could never wait 36 hours! - but this also seems to work.

Nicole

My secret is using the BETTY CROCKER recipe which is the same as TH but one less egg.

Also, avoid an electric mixer -- cookies mixed by hand are best.

What a fun read! I learned a few tips I am going to try next batch of CCC's!

Thanks!

Linda

I made a batch at 11:a.m today; just hope that I can endure the wait.

I haven't made CCC for years I but I had a good recipe and may just look for it again. I didn't buy chips though since we don't get them here, so I bought the best quality chocolate bars I could find and chopped them up with a chef's knife into odd shaped chunks. They always turned out perfect....chewy and crispy and the best time to eat them was when they were still a little warm, with the chocolate partially melting.

Oh darn now I've made myself hungry just thinking about them!

SharonCb

Making the dough rest will me mighty hard, but I plan to try it anyway. Thanks for posting the link.

24 hours is all that I could wait so I made one batch. They are the best that I've ever tasted and they look beautiful, not the least bit flat. They were still warm when I took a bite so I don't know how they will be later on. Thanks for posting.

I can't wait to try the 36 hour wait!! My only question is, how do you hide cookie dough from a husband and daughter for 36 hours???? Maybe I'll make 4 batches and hope for 1 in the end :) Christy

Years ago, when cookie shops first started appearing in Malls, I wondered how they got their cookies so perfectly cooked, with no browned or singed edges. As I was wondering, a girl took a tray of cookies out of the walk in refrigerator and put it straight into the oven.

So, I went home and made dough, shaped the cookies and put the tray into the fridge for several hours. The cookies held their shape better, and didn't singe!

I figured that the chill in the batter kept it from melting before it started to cook. The outside would cook first, while the inside was still chilled enough to hold the shape, so when the inside began cooking, the cookie spread without developing that thin edge that would singe.

Maybe it is actually because of the flour-butter thing the author wrote of.

Anyway, after that I started making my batter and then rolling it into long tubes of waxed paper. Thoroughly chilled, all I had to do was slice off rounds, put them on the sheet and bake. Perfect cookies every time. In fact, the batter keeps quite well like that in the fridge for weeks, in the freezer for still longer. So, I can have a few hot cookies whenever I want them instead of making up a couple of dozen at a time...with just the two of us, it makes sense as we really don't need to be eating a couple of dozen cookies in a few days.

I've since used this method with many kinds of cookies and it works wonderfully. Of course, for things like ginger snaps or lace cookies, for which the spreading is essential, this isn't a good method. You also don't want to chill the batter in the bowl, because it makes it too darn hard to shape the cookies.

I also like to put some sweetened, flaked coconut, minced finely into many cookies as it adds moisture for a chewier cookie.

Oh Rachel, I'm single, good tips for cooking a few at a time. I wonder if I can just back a few at a time in the toaster oven? Don't even have to pre-warm the whole oven?

Well, I made it 6 hours. The shape definitely held up better, the recipe I use has cornstarch in it and when I make them they are always very flat with dark edges, so I will do it this way from now on because they were nice and thick with only a little darkening. Hopefully next time I make it the full 36! Thanks for the link.

Mary, if your toaster oven has a thermostat, you can bake cookies in it. You have to be more careful to make sure the oven is heated up to the correct temperature and be very quick about putting the cookies in and if you must check them, because the batter is closer to the heating element...but, you can experiment one cookie at a time to get the timing etc down. I used to do them in a toaster oven but it was so many years ago I can't remember the details.

I've done them in my toaster oven, and it was perfect. There are just two of us, as well, and our toaster oven is a brick-oven baking oven from Cuisinart. Worked really well- could bake up to about 9 cookies at a time, so it was perfect. Anytime we were in the mood for more, we'd just open the freezer, slice off a few pieces of the dough, and stick them in the little oven. So much better than heating up the whole kitchen in the summer with the big oven (and saves on electricity!).

I'm still working on developing the best chocolate chip cookie recipe (it'll probably never be perfected for me!) and along the way I have found that a small amount of sour cream was really nice in them. You can't taste it at all (I think it's a tablespoon, but it's been a while since I've looked at the recipe). I also add more vanilla and a tiny bit more salt. The extra salt surprisingly enhances the sweetness of the chocolate. Really nice contrast.

=)

I always chill my dough for several hours. It definitely makes a better cookie. I follow the toll house cookie recipe, but I substitute about 1/3 cup of the chips with the chocolate chunks. And I believe nestles toll house are the best chips. I found my cookies greasy when I tried other brands.

I'm 29 hours in!!! When I get up tomorrow, it is cookie making time :) I bought a big bag of chocolate chips and a dozen fresh chocolate chip cookies (so the dough could survive). Fortunately only a few spoonfuls missing, and we'll see how they turn out!! Christy

Okay, out of spoons and onto the forks....

So I finally got around to make these Chocolate Chips cookies from the NY Times. I have to say, they are quite exceptional. Many different ingredients than my normal, but delicious chocolate chip cookies. I won't make them often, as they are quite expensive if you buy the good quality bittersweet chocolate - but warm out of the oven was an OMG experience.

Bonnie

Wow, that is one of the best looking Chocolate chip cookies I've ever seen. I bet they taste as good as they look too.

Beautiful.

Ann

Wow, those look great, we'll be right over with our glass of milk!

Look at those giant pools of chocolate!!!!!

The chocolate used is not actually chips. It's small flat oval disks - much bigger than chips. A lot of disks! One and 1/4 lbs of chocolate. That's why it melts together that way. I think you could easily cut back the chocolate to 1 lb and still have a very chocolatey cookie.

I still have some in the freezer. I'll thaw, and nuke for 10 seconds, and eat, as needed :-)

Recipe please!!! They look amazing!

Recipe is above - in the first message of this thread. :-)

Bonnie

Those are absolutely gorgeous, bons!

I made some last week also, and I have to agree they're some of the best CC cookies I've ever tasted. I used Ghirardelli 60% chips instead of the disks, and I aged the dough for about 50 hours before I had a chance to bake them. I've got eight cookie balls packed in a vacuum-sealed bag in the freezer, because we couldn't eat all those huge cookies in a single week. I'll be interested to see how they hold up when I defrost and bake. But this is now a go-to recipe.

I'm another weirdo who prefers them cooled to warm out of the oven. I like that little nugget of firm chocolate instead of the hot ooze. This is probably a subject more suited to the therapist's office, though.

Time to bump this up for some great Halloween treats...for me..:)

I'm glad you bumped it... I hadn't found this forum yet when it was new...

I like mine crispy rather than chewy. I normally use the old Toll House recipe. I have a plate full in the kitchen right now.

My question is, how do you keep them crispy? For some reason this batch became soft by the next day, normally this doesnÂt happen. I didnÂt change anything in the recipe. Used all better as usual: think it was half salted and half unsalted. IÂm thinking about re-crisping the remainder of the batch in the oven, but IÂd really like to know why this happened this time.