Ryan and I love homemade chocolate chip cookies-although I am never quite satisfied with the results...until now. I came across this recipe when a co-worker/fellow baker said she saw a recipe in the NY Times for the best chocolate chip cookie. A few weeks later I remembered our conversation and looked up the recipe. It called for a few things I lacked in my pantry: chocolate baking disks and bread flour. I made my way over to Whole Foods and found the bread flour. The chocolate disks were a little harder to find but I eventually found them in the baking isle in boxes ( E. Guittard Chocolate Wafers). I bought 1 box of the semisweet and one of the bittersweet. *note: these are expensive cookies but well worth it--the chocolate (1lb boxes) were $10 each!
I made the dough but I increased all ingredients by 1/2. I let the dough rest in the fridge over night and baked them the next night after work. Ryan helped me scoop out the dough and form it into 3.5oz balls. We sprinkled them with Fleur de Sel and baked them for about 20 min. These are by far the best chocolate chip cookies! We made about 6 and froze the rest of the dough balls. I think freezing the dough preformed is such a great thing to do. That way we can take out two and bake them and not have to worry about overeating. Did I mention that these cookies are huge! I'm sure the caloric and fat intake is equal to eating about 3 tollhouse cookies! These aren't too sweet and the salt on top gives a nice salty/sweet flavor. The thin chocolate wafers are great in the cookie (I don't think I'll ever go back to standard choc. chips) they make nice layers of chocolate in the cookie. I've posted the recipe below it is Jacques Torres recipe and was posted in the NY Times. (I increased the ingredients below by half the first time I made them and more recently stuck to the original amounts).
Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from
The New York Times, which adapted it from Jacques Torres’ recipe
Makes about 16-18 5-inch cookies
Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling
8 1/2 ounces cake flour
8 1/2 ounces bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
10 ounces light brown sugar
8 ounces granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate wafers/disks, at least 60 percent cacao content
Sea salt (I used Fleur de Sel)
Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. * freeze remaining dough in 31/2 ounce balls and enjoy for up to a month (place frozen dough on parchment covered cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 20-22minutes.
I made the dough but I increased all ingredients by 1/2. I let the dough rest in the fridge over night and baked them the next night after work. Ryan helped me scoop out the dough and form it into 3.5oz balls. We sprinkled them with Fleur de Sel and baked them for about 20 min. These are by far the best chocolate chip cookies! We made about 6 and froze the rest of the dough balls. I think freezing the dough preformed is such a great thing to do. That way we can take out two and bake them and not have to worry about overeating. Did I mention that these cookies are huge! I'm sure the caloric and fat intake is equal to eating about 3 tollhouse cookies! These aren't too sweet and the salt on top gives a nice salty/sweet flavor. The thin chocolate wafers are great in the cookie (I don't think I'll ever go back to standard choc. chips) they make nice layers of chocolate in the cookie. I've posted the recipe below it is Jacques Torres recipe and was posted in the NY Times. (I increased the ingredients below by half the first time I made them and more recently stuck to the original amounts).
After the first successful attempt I decided to try out new flavors. I came across Tartlette's post about strawberry macarons and was intrigued. I used the same basic shell recipe as I used before (Doughmesstic's) but substituted some of the powdered sugar for powdered strawberries. We had some freeze-dried strawberries that I finely ground in the coffee grinder. I didn't add an extracts or other flavorings. The other macaron I made was pistachio. Using the same recipe just substituting half of the almonds for pistachios.
When it came to the filling I decided on doing a vanilla buttercream for both. My only experience with making buttercream is the 1 stick of butter to 1lb powdered sugar with a dash of milk and flavoring. This time I opted to try something new and make the buttercream that Tarlette used for her strawberry macarons. I really didn't know what to expect with whisking the egg whites over the double boiler and hoped they were heated/mixed enough. I followed the rest of the recipe but realized that the only butter I had was salted and it resulted in a very buttery buttercream. To compensate I added more sugar and vanilla to half of it and added powdered strawberries to the other. By the time I was ready to assemble the macarons I was tired and rather sloppily slathered on the vanilla buttercream on the pistachio shells and strawberry buttercream on the strawberry shells. My official taste tester, Ryan, was eager to try these out but after our taste tests we both decided the buttercream was too much and ended up removing all but a very thin layer on each macaron. I still had the problem with the tops of the shells getting too dark but overall I though it was a success and took them into work the next day. They were a big hit! 
I came across Doughmesstic's blog and found a less terrifying recipe. I ran over to a chain home goods store and bought a coffee grinder and a kitchen scale and then off to the store to buy slivered almonds, egg whites and various extracts (well, coconut and hazelnut). I decided to just make a basic all-almond shell with hazelnut extract and fill with Nutella (I wasn't up for making buttercream). I used Doughmesstic's recipe found here but substituted the cherry flavoring for hazelnut extract. I also used jarred egg whites (eggology). I found the recipe to be very easy to follow and quickly had the batter ready to pipe out. I wasn't too successful at piping out the circles but figured for my first shot it wasn't too bad. After letting them sit for a bit I put them in the oven, turned on the oven light and patiently watched. From all the recipes I read, the foot on the macaron was very important. As they were baking Ryan came home and arrived to me dancing around singing "they have feet..they have feet...I did something right cause they have feet!!"
