Indulgent Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently read an article by David Leite, who writes for the NYT, about chocolate chip cookies.  Specifically it was about cookies where the dough had been aged for between 24 and 36 hours to give a stronger flavour.  I also watched a few videos of making those cookies.  They looked great so I thought I would try them out.  Although I detail the recipe below you can also see it at Leite Culinary

The recipe calls for two types of flour, cake flour and bread flour.  These are two very different flours, the cake flour being low in protein and therefore gluten and the other being high in those.  That provides a different texture to the cookies when baked.  So as well as ageing the cookie dough to give and enhanced flavour you get different textures too.

For those who don’t have cake flour you can easily make your own version by weighing out all purpose flour and then removing some(4 tablespoons in this recipe) and replacing it with the same amount of cornflour(cornstarch).

I toyed with the idea of making the dough and then baking it in three batches, after 12, 24 and 36 hours to see the difference.  But in the end I opted just to bake one third of the dough after 36 hours and to freeze the remainder to use later.

After the dough has been in the fridge for about 35 hours I took it out and cut off 1/3 for use.  Then I divided that into 6 pieces weighing 106g(just over 3 1/2 ounces) each.  Squeezing the cold dough and forming it into balls I placed it on lined baking sheets.  Because I knew the cookies would be very large and spread I only placed three balls of dough on each baking sheet, and topped with some sea salt.

Then it was just a question of baking for 18 to 20 minutes and allowing the cookies to cool down.  The result was 6 wonderful, and very large, cookies.  The taste was fantastic, a caramel flavour to the dough and then all that lovely chocolate too.  The texture was great too, crunchy on the outside and chewy when bitten into.

It would be very easy to make smaller cookies too, but the cooking time would need to be reduced as well.

Ingredients:

• 240g(2 cups – 1 tbsp) cake flour
• 240g(2 cups – 3 tbsp)bread flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 283g(1 1/4 cups) softened unsalted butter
• 250g(1 1/4 cups) light brown sugar
• 225(1 1/8 cups) caster or granulated sugar
• 2 medium eggs(large in USA)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 565g(3 cups) dark chocolate chips
• sea salt to sprinkle on top before baking

Method:

1. In a large bowl mix(or sift) the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer place the butter and sugars and beat with the paddle attachment until the mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat to combine.
4. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.
5. Add the flours mixture and beat on slow until just about combined.
6. Add the chocolate chips and beat until mixed in throughout.
7. Remove the dough from the stand mixer and form into a large disc, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill for between 24 and 36 hours).
8. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F.
9. Line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
10. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and put two back in the fridge(or freeze for later use).
11. Divide the remaining 1/3 of dough into 6 equal parts of about 106 grams.
12. Squeeze the chilled dough and form into 6 balls.
13. Place 3 on each baking tray, leaving lots of space for spreading.
14. Press the tops to flatten slighty and then sprinkle sea salt on the tops.
15. Bake in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes until the cookies have spread and cooked to a nice golden colour.
16. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking trays for at least 5 minutes before carefully transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
17. Repeat with remaining dough if using immediately.