I haven't made either of these, but the recipes look fine. I can say, however, that I don't care for chopped chocolate or big chunks. When I was young and living beyond nowhere, I could get okay chocolate, but no chips, so I had to chop my own. It was better than nothing, but I didn't like the chunks, big or small.. I like proper chips. (I don't like chocolate chunks in ice cream, either, and prefer flake to actual chips.)

The Tara recipe looks different, however. How does the cookie part taste? I might give it a whirl with chips. I see to have a glut of chips.

I've always liked Leite's recipes, so I'm not surprised that you like the cookie recipe so much. Do you do the topping salt? I know that kind of thing is in. I'm wondering if that's to give a strong counterpoint to the intensity of the fancy chocolate? What do you think?

Hi plllog,

The first time I made the David Leite recipe, I used 10 oz of Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Baking Chips and 5 oz of Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips because that was what I had in my cupboards and in my chocolate stash.

Half of the batches for both recipes got the topping salt, and half did not. I didn't use a lot of salt, just the barest hint on the top. The very sightly salt-topped cookies seemed to have a bit more complexity in the balance & enhancement of flavors, to my palate anyway. The cookie part of Tara's recipe has hints of caramel sweetness, probably from the brown sugar.

I like crispy cookies. Are the results crisp? It's hard tell from the recipes. I'm guessing 'squidgy' does not mean crisp...?

My choc. chip recipe is the oId one from a bag of Nestle chips.

And wow! 2 1/2 sticks butter for 18 cookies seems very rich.

Thanks for all the details, Sooz! I'm going to have to try the salt.

Carol, The Expert uses the old Toll House recipe that has the spoon of water (I learned from a presentation by a baking scientist a friend dragged me to that a spoon of water is all the difference between chewy and crisp recipes (though bake time is also part of it)), He uses special alchemy to make the very best chewy chocolate chip cookies. i can make a near approximation, but don't have the magic part,

This is so tempting, Sooz! When my kitchen is put back together, and the heat dies down, I'm going to have to try these both.

Sooz, the photo of the DL cookies looks especially good to me. "Eat warm with a big napkin" sounds tempting.

I still use the Nestle recipe most often. I always chill drop cookie dough. I like to make the dough the day before baking to park in the fridge. It's sometimes in the fridge a bit longer than that. Well chilled balls of dough for the oven work best for me.

Right pillog - I leave out the water.

I never put salt in or on my chocolate chip cookies - I hate salty cookies - they might as well be crackers if they have salt.

I do add granola and coconut flakes to mine, and I reduce the sugar. The granola makes them very crisp and crunchy. I also do not buy any granola that has salt in it - I check the ingredients at the store before I buy it, and it is difficult to find ones without salt, but they taste so much better without the salt.

Carol, the edges are somewhat firm, but not crispy. Who knows what exactly squidgy means?!--it's open to interpretation!

Chloebud, that's quite a lovely picture in my imagination when I read "eat warm with a big napkin!"

The Toll House recipe is a reliable favorite, but these two recipes mentioned above are outstanding!

Lars, I don't normally use salt in my cooking although I do have a salt shaker. I think you may have misunderstood as these are not salty cookies. The use of the salt is very subtle. How about you make a batch and if you don't like it, you can send them to me! LOL

Gardengal, I'm pretty happy with the taste of these cookies themselves, as well as the yumminess of the chocolate.

I do enjoy a light sprinkling of fleur de sel on the cookies.

"...and only using butter (no shortening)."

Couldn't agree more!

The Expert uses the 100kC per tbsp baking sticks with dairy solids only. Butter melts at too low a temperature for the alchemy. I made some with vegan baking sticks, and I think they tasted good, but The Expert wrinkled up his nose and made me a gift of "proper" baking sticks. He was right. :) I could definitely tell the difference. Mind you, this is just for the one particular cookie. I use the very best butter for Carol's Uncle Barney's Spritz butter cookies, which are one of the most perfect cookies ever. On a level with The Expert's Toll House cookies. ;)

Sooz, I'm very sensitive to salt, and I can definitely tell the difference in recipes that has small amounts of salt and those that have none. I generally prefer the ones that have none, especially when it comes to cookies.

For me, the baking soda provides enough salt flavor in cookies. I do use small amounts of salt when I make pancakes, but that is to counteract the bitter flavor from wheat flour. I also use salt in bread, but bread needs salt to control the yeast and also for the wheat flour. I make mostly whole wheat bread or bread that is at least 50% WW. If a cookie was made with 100% WW flour, then I would agree that it would need a tiny amount of salt.

For me, salt is a balance to bitter; sweet is a balance to sour. Therefore, if something is too sour, I might add sugar (although rarely), and if something is too bitter, I might add salt, but never sugar. This is how my palate operates. Everyone's palate is different.

Awww, darn, no cookies tor me sent from Lars’ kitchen! Thanks for elaborating—yes, everyone’s palate is different :0)

The standard Tollhouse Cookie recipe was tossed when a friend shared her recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. This was in the 1970s and it had been her grandmother's recipe; so who knows how old it is. This quickly became the family standard for chocolate chip cookies, and has remained so to this day.

(OK! So now I have to go make some. )

I love David Leite’s recipes. I emailed a question about one once and he responded to me. My heart just went pittypat! Nevertheless, the chocolate chip recipe that is posted on his website is an adaptation of the Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip cookie that made the rounds about 8 years ago. I have trouble scooping the dough after it has been refrigerated for the required time. Instead of putting the whole bowl of dough in the refrigerator to mellow, I scoop out the balls of dough and refrigerate them.

CA Kate, care to post that recipe?? Research is such a good excuse to veer from my diet! LOL!

Bbstx, pittypat indeed! Yes, I do recall that he mentioned the recipe is an adaptation of Jacques Torres. I know what you mean about scooping the dough after refrigeration--like you, I scoop out the dough into balls and then refrigerate them, too--and I freeze some of them as well, with wonderful results.

I too make this dough into balls and freeze them for future reference. It's nice to pull out 4 - or 6 - and have fresh cookies right out of the oven.

Margaret's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 Tbl. water

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 cups quick Oatmeal (not instant)

1 12 oz bag Hershey's Chocolate Chips (I like to use the minis)

• Cream butter, shortening, sugars, eggs, water and vanilla.
• Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Add oatmeal and chips; hand-stir these into mixture.

• Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet;
• Bake at 375º F for 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown.

* Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Note 1: The raw dough may be made into balls and frozen. It is not necessary to defrost before baking - a little more baking time may be needed.

Note 2: A double recipe will also make 8 12 oz giant cookies.

* Divide dough into 8 equal parts.

• Spread one part into an 8" circle onto a greased cookie sheet making the center of the circle thinner than the edges.

* Bake for about 15 minutes

• Let hardened-up a little before moving to cooling rack - but not so long that you can't move it at all.

I’ve not used either of those recipes, but discovered this one several years ago and it’s become a family favorite! I use all butter instead of shortening and add extra flour because of that. Before the pandemic, my husband’s colleagues requested these often. I stopped trying new recipes after perfecting this one! No need to chill dough to get a thick, delicious cookie.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chocolate-malted-cookies/

CA Kate, thank you for the recipe!!

Lovemycorgi, you’ve posted another recipe for me to try (I have oh-so-willing taste testers here!). This afternoon I happened to catch an old broadcast of the corgi races. So darned cute!!!’

The need to chill the dough depends on the temperature of your kitchen. If the butter is already melting and getting absorbed by the flour before it goes in the oven, one gets an overspread mess that never rises. In a cooler kitchen, the butter may need the friction of hard beating just to cream, and may not get warm enough to bake up badly.

That said, I thought the purpose of the long chill (rather than just to set the butter) was to develop flavor. I'm not sure what happens to do so, or if it's blind testably real, but it's a different thing from the function of chilling at least six hours so it doesn't become a puddle, same as one chills pie dough, etc.

Sooz, corgis are cute at pretty much everything they do, with those stubby little legs! I am biased, of course. :-)

For the Taste of Home recipe above, I use all softened-but-still-cold unsalted butter (no Crisco), and I add an extra cup or flour, so 3 cups of flour total, spooned into the measuring cup and then leveled. For the chocolate syrup I use Hershey’s in the brown plastic bottle and the malted milk powder is Carnation. The dough will be thick; I use a stand mixer. Tastes best with both milk chocolate and semi-sweet chips.

I never chill the cookie dough for my rolled sugar cookies, choc chip, or oatmeal raisin - which are the three cookie types I make most often. I have no idea if they would be tastier with chilling, and my hips can’t handle anymore taste tests. I‘m still trying to undo the damage from my pandemic sourdough hobby, ha ha!!

plllog, I think a longer chill does help with both spread and flavor. To be honest, I also find myself making dough in advance due to time constraints. It's often more convenient for me to do it in steps...make dough day 1 and chill, then bake on day 2 or 3. Or, just freeze the dough for sometine in the future. Though I've not noticed it myself, I"ve also heard a longer chill can affect texture resulting in a more chewy/crispy result.

Along with kitchen temp, the type of baking sheets factor in, too. Years ago I had a terrible spreading problem when baking a lot of cut out sugar cookies. I was beyond frustrated and finally found out the spreading was due to the new insulated cookie sheets I was using...made by AiBake, I think. They were heating too slowly in the oven promoting the spreading. I immediately went back to my old, trusty cookie sheets...non-insulated, dull heavy aluminum, and light in color.

🙋🏻‍♀️ volunteering to be one of the blind tasters!!!

Chloebud, great point, my sugar cookie cutouts also spread when using the airbake pans!! I switched back to my regular 1/2 sheet pans and my cutouts were perfect again. But I do like the insulated sheets for most of my other cookies, as the bottoms don’t get as dark.

@lovemycorgi z5b SE michigan, I bought those cookie sheets years ago after someone convinced me they were the thing to have. I actually got rid of them but good to know yours aren't giving as much grief as mine did.

I noticed the SE Michigan with your board name. Are you anywhere near Farmington Hills by any chance? Just asking since we lived there when I was a kid, though it was called Farmington then. Michigan's so pretty!

Another vote for good old fashioned flat pure aluminum cookie sheets. I didn't mesn to imply that warmth was the only cause of spread—just that no matter what you bake on, if the butter is too warm and soft in the dough, you will have spread. That's also why oil doesn't work well in most cookies.

Chloebud, what I do know about a long chill/rest time is that the flour soaks up the water from the butter (and eggs if there are eggs). The result is just druthers. The different level of absoption will give you a different texture, though the difference might be subtle.

One problem is that in a long soak, gluten will develop more, making your flour choice more important. You need some gluten for loft and chew, but you don't want tough! I know Chloebud has this down. I'm just pointing out some places where the complexity of it all can trip up people who just change things. I can't even fathom how many thousands of lovely cookies I've baked, but I've know people to use the exact same recipes and fail.

@chloebud , I’m not too far from Farmington Hills, but have only been there to visit Farmer John’s on Haggerty, it’s one of my favorite ”local” nurseries!!

We love Michigan as well, and feel so fortunate to live here! (Though I don’t always feel fortunate when I’m snowblowing our circle driveway in 10 degree weather!). :-)

@plllog , thank you for the explanations! I used to use a choc chip cookie recipe that called for melted butter (the cooks illustrated recipe) and that was my go-to for years. I always enjoy reading their trial and error scientific explanations, good stuff!

The NYT recipe is, as far as I am concerned, the very best of the best. I have used it for YEARS.

Refrigerating the dough does amazing things. I have actually done a test where I made the dough, and refrigerated, 3 days in a row, and then baked them all the same day. The batch that had refrigerated the longest absolutely baked up to be the best cookie. ( I did not leave this to my judgement either - I took the cookies all into work, fresh-baked, and did a poll.)

@lovemycorgi z5b SE michigan, it's been a long time since I've been there. I well remember those winters! I've lived in Southern CA a long time now. where we have two seasons...summer and almost summer. :-)

Regarding chilling cookie dough, this is from King Arthur. I was mainly looking for the texture issue addressed in #3.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2015/05/17/chilling-cookie-dough

BTW, yesterday I was looking at these cut-out cookies with the "watercolor" designs. Too pretty to eat! Looks like they take time and patience, but I wouldn't mind trying just a few.. Time to get out my scads of pumpkin, leaf and other Fall cookie cutters!

Beautiful autumn cookies!!

Chessie, many thanks for sharing your test results confirming what Sooz started with. Cool!

And thanks to Chloebud for the link to why. The breakdown of the flour releasing sugar is something I didn't expect after just a few days. The KA blog says it's the intensification of the sweet that increases the sensation of tastes good, rather than the browning (which sugar also does), which is what I was guessing. Since I dislike cookies that taste sugary or very sweet, it's no wonder I've never thought ”tastes better”.

Because I love Heath bars, I decided once, years ago, to add Heath toffee chips to my chocolate chip cookies. I thought they would add some crunch. But instead, they melted into the cookie. No crunch, but a delicious buttery toffee flavor got infused throughout the cookies. That's the only way I'll make them now.

I use a recipe that I got out of a Pillsbury Classic Cookbook. It calls for both shortening and butter and the texture comes out just exactly the way I like them: fall-apart delicate when they are just out of the oven, and soft and chewy after cooling.

I think that chocolate chip cookies are one of those standards that, once you find the recipe YOU love, you never need to search further. At least, that's my take on it!

squidgy => the difference between 12:31 in the oven and 12:33 in the oven [convection oven] at 350 degrees.