These are the cookies that appeared in the July 9, 2008 edition of the New York Times, the very same cookies that set off an explosion of baking across the Internet to see if, indeed, they are the perfect specimen. The consensus is yes.–David Leite
LC GF Note
Lusting after these cookies but groaning and bemoaning over being gluten-free? Dry your tears and try Shauna James Ahern’s gluten-free version of the cookies.
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
- 1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups(10 ounces) light brown sugar
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (Buy it)
- Sea salt
Directions
- 1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and Kosher salt into a bowl. Set aside.
- 2. 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.
- 3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350° (176°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
- 4. Scoop six 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. Eat warm, with a big napkin.
A little sumthin' sumthin' for you
Hungry for more? Chow down on these:
- Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies from Gluten-Free Girl
- Chewy Ginger Chocolate Cookies from Joy the Baker
- Lemon Bars from Leite's Culinaria
- Chocolate-Fig Oatmeal Bars from Leite's Culinaria
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe © 2008 The New York Times. Photo © 2008 Francisco Tonelli. All rights reserved.

[Raye Tiedemann] I will go to this recipe again and again because these are the best I have ever baked. I had some fleur de sel I used to sprinkle on the top. This sure did bring out the sweetness of this ultimate cookie! Nice and gooey right out of the oven. Of course, this is the only way to have them. Yum….Thanks, David.
David, (insert screaming) OMG!!! Just took these cookies out of the oven, I couldn’t wait the 36 hours. I made the dough yesterday and had to try them today, so 24 hours and……they are THE BEST chocolate chip cookies I ever made. I thank you, and my family thanks you.
Best regards,
Blima
Blima, thanks. They are delicious, aren’t they? But shame on you for not waiting 36 hours! A BIG difference.
I will let you know tomorrow, only made half of the dough recipe. :) Thanks again.
David, Why the 36 hr. refrigeration? Today is Sunday, I was thinking of making the dough today, but won’t have time to bake it till Wed a.m. I may bake a couple today!!
Hi, Lori. This article about the baking process will explain it all for you. (It’s really worth the wait!)
David, you were so right. My son came over the next day, he took a cookie and said, “They are better today.” I laughed. Bakers, listen to David when he tells you to wait. Thanks again.
That’s what months of research does!
I don’t know what I am doing wrong :(
I followed the recipe exactly and substituted no ingredients. On the night I made the dough, I baked off just two cookies, and they turned out light, fluffy, and delicious–the best cookie I’ve ever had.
Then I chilled the rest for 48 hours, scooped out very big generous golf ball rounds, plopped them onto parchment paper, stuck them in the 350 degree oven, yet when they came out, the whole cookie was basically crispy, and they did not expand as wide as yours (no ‘strata’ were achieved!)
Do the balls on the baking sheet need to come to room temp before baking?! Did I just overbake them by a minute? I’m saddened that the pre-chilled-cookies were better than the post-chilled ones!
A few things could be going on. First, if your fridge is really cold, yes, the cookies won’t bake properly. They won’t spread as wide, but, that said, the centers would be under-baked. So I theorize that if your cookies were both small in diameter and completely crispy, then the dough was too cold and you over-baked them. I suggest forming the balls of dough, let them sit for 10 or even 15 minutes on the cookie sheet and bake them for just the minimum time stated in the recipe.
Also, if you don’t have an oven thermometer, I’d invest in one. Your oven could be running hot.
Thanks very, very much. I still have tons of batter, I’ll do what you’ve recommended.
Thanks for the tips DL- I had the same problem with the cookies coming out very crispy, and when I took the dough out of the fridge it was SO hard I could not scoop it to save my life, I had to let it sit out for a few hours.
They tasted fantastic though and got lots of compliments, and a few slices of bread in the container with the cookies softened them right up.
I will definitely try them again and keep a close eye on the temp in both the fridge and the oven (unfortunately both are ancient and not terribly reliable).
I have not made these yet but was wondering if I can add nuts? If so, How much?
Pat, you certainly can, but they’re truly wonderful plain. If you want to add nuts, I think a cup or so would suffice.
I am in tears over how delicious this recipe looks and sounds. We have to eat gluten-free and wondered if anyone had come up with GF flour alternatives.
Clare, yep. Gluten-Free Girl developed a version that GF-ers love.
Mwah! Thanks. Off to mix and chill.—Clare
David, I am just another happy baker reporting back on these excellent cookies. Kudos to you on this recipe. These were devoured straight off the cooling rack, by a large group of friends staying together in a vacation rental, pretty much as fast as they came out of the oven. Since people (especially my husband) generally break my “Let it cool” rule anyway, these were a giant hit.
I used part See’s Candies semi-sweet chocolate chips (which are very large and flat, very close to the discs/feves, and my favorite for cookies) and part 72% couverture discs. I made a double batch and still have dough in the freezer. I am hoping I can use it in a week. Have you ever frozen this dough?
Rachel, so happy to hear they turned out well. It is a crowd-pleasing cookie. I have frozen the dough, and, for me, it loses something. The texture is off—more like those frozen slice-and-bake cookies. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
David, I can confirm that me and 2 other tasters found the frozen dough baked up into cookies just as delicious as the original version. If I were to taste them side-by-side, perhaps I would have noticed a difference between the two. I must confess that this dough was in and out of the freezer, fridge, and cooler (!) over the course of a week! I even tried cooking them on aluminum foil over a BBQ grill, and while they were homely, they were still yummy. Or perhaps it’s just that one doesn’t notice a small loss in texture of the dough that binds together the large flat discs of good chocolate, highlighted with the sprinkle of sea salt, eaten warm.
David, they are just the ultimate chocolate chip cookie, exactly as you christened them.
Rachel, I so happy to hear you found no difference. Anyone else out there have the same experience? Perhaps my problem was I had them in the freezer for several weeks. That could have made a difference.
We’ve vacuum-sealed the dough (in pre-portioned scoops) and frozen it—the cookies are stil delicious (how can a warm cookie be bad?). But I find they tend to lose something over the “fresh” dough. They aren’t as crispy/chewy/gooey as the refrigerated dough. But, they are very handy for when you are in need of a cookie fix and don’t want to mix up a whole batch.
Having said that, the cookie dough is perfect because you can make a couple after 24 hours (yum) and then the next day (even better) while waiting for the 72 hours to go by. I just have to make sure someone doesn’t eat all the dough before we get to baking them into cookies.
Leanne, I find the same thing happens when I freeze the dough. I think the sugar has more time to melt, resulting in a less interesting cookie. The “fresh rest” of 24 to 36 hours in the fridge is what give them their ultimate taste and texture.
Chocolate chip cookies are my weakness. Once I get some cake flour I will be making these!
I just made the dough and its sitting in my fridge. I can’t wait to try these cookies. I know they’re probably best warm but will they taste okay a few days later? I plan on giving some as a gift.
BR, they are best warm, and they lose something at room temperature. Why not tuck a note inside the gift tin suggesting the recipient heat the cookies in a low oven for 10 minutes or so until warmed through?
David,
Thank you for a beautiful website with fantastic recipes I’m going to have to spend years just to get through! And, I am most impressed that you take the time to reply to most every comment!
Um, I know this is a long shot…but do you have any advice on how I should adjust this recipe for altitude? We live at 6000 feet, in Colorado Springs. So far, I’ve used Susan Purdy’s “recipe adjustment” table (from her book, “Pie in the Sky”) to tweak my cake recipes. By and large, it’s worked just fine but there are times when I’ve had to tweak recipes over several goes before they turn out right.
I’ve yet to try my hand at cookies in this part of the world…and I really don’t want 1 1/4 lb of precious chocolate to go to waste (and have to wait 72 hours to find out!) if the altitude is going to affect the recipe…which I think it might?
I’m desperately hoping you’ve got the magic answer?!
Hi Rachel, thanks for the kind words. All of my baking experience has been at sea level. But I did find this publication from the University of Colorado. Perhaps it will help. Also, in the brochure, you’ll find an order form for several publications about high-altitude baking, specific to your area. And a suggestion: Make the cookies first using a less expensive chocolate.
Dear David,
Thanks for the speedy reply! The information you refer to is similar to Susan Purdy’s advice – thanks. I’ll let you know in due course how I fare. If all goes well, hopefully I’ll be able to write you and let you know how I successfully adjusted it to work at 6000 feet!
Hi David,
I have been eyeing this recipe for some time now and I am determined to make them this weekend. And, lucky for me (and my husband if he’s lucky), I also found some wonderful couverture discs at the store yesterday, so I’m set…almost.
I only have all-purpose and pastry flours at home. Is there any way to use a combination of these two instead? I could not find cake flour OR bread flour at the store. So, I’m dying to make these, but I really do not want to mess them up! Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. And thank you for such a fantastic site! I have been making the korova cookies for years now and they are still, to this day, our favorite treat EVER!
Happy new year!
Debra, for this go around, use only the all-purpose. The protein content will be a little different that with the bread and cake flours, but using a mix of all-purpose and pastry will lower the protein content too much. Best of luck and tell me what you think!
David, you’re the best! Thank you so very much for your speedy reply. So just to make sure: I substitute equal amounts, right (17 oz. of all-purpose flour)? Ugh, I hate that I can’t make it exactly as you have written it, as I know what hard work went into it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
You’ve got it. But to be reeeeeeeeeeeally clear, order some bread and cake flour from King Arthur. You’ll see the difference!
David,
Thanks for the amazing recipe. I finally got around to making it and the cookies were absolutely amazing! My patience was definitely rewarded. I only wish I would have crossed them off my to do list sooner.
Kristen, my pleasure. So glad you liked them.
Has anyone ever added peanut butter?
Hi, Sherry. Adding peanut butter is a great idea, but it really changes the recipe and its texture—which is great as is.
But as a starting point, add 3/4 cup creamy (not natural or organic) peanut butter to the butter and sugars before creaming. Make sure to reduce the butter by 1/4 cup (or 4 tablespoons), and see how that suits your taste. The two ingredients to play with are the peanut butter and the butter. Best of luck.
Hi David,
I just stumbled on your site and saw the video. Cannot wait to bake some myself. I am realizing that weighing my ingredients makes a big difference. In the video, you mentioned that you weigh your cookie dough before you shape them. Can you please tell me how much should each cookie “golf ball” size should weigh?
Thanks very much.
Tina
Tina, thanks. The weight would be 3 1/2 ounces.
What is the difference between cake flour and bread flour?
Hi Lila,
All flours can be placed along a continuum based on their protein content. Protein determines the amount of gluten that will develop when flour is mixed with liquid. The higher the protein content, the more gluten will develop.
Bread flour, which has a very high protein content, will absorb more moisture and cause a cookie to be chewier. Bread flour on its own is great for making breads but not considered favorable for cakes, pie crusts, biscuits etc, as the gluten can make these tough and chewy.
Cake flour is very fine textured flour which has the lowest protein content at 7% to 8%, while bread flour is much higher up along the continuum with 13% to 14% protein. In this recipe you’ll want to use both flours as David indicates above—the cake flour for tenderness and the bread flour for structure and chewiness. This is one of the techniques that makes these cookies so impressive!
Linda
I’m allergic to dairy products and am wondering if I could just make an equal substitute for the butter (such as Earth Balance) and not change the taste/texture too much. Of course I realize real butter is the best!
Jill, I’d have to say no. The ingredients in a butter substitute wouldn’t give the same flavor or texture as the original.
Hi-
Cookies are wonderful. Do they lose anything by shaping into balls, covering tightly on a baking sheet, and refrigerating for 72 hours?
Thanks!
Thartzell, as long as they’re covered really, really well, no harm done. What you want to look out for is them drying out if the wrap is loose.
i am so excited to bake these. i’ve drooled while reading about this recipe for so long, but unable to partake since i have a gluten sensitivity. i am thankful to have stumbled upon GF Girl’s version and excited to drool over my own batch today!
the dough has been in the fridge for almost 36 hours, and i just checked on it and find it to be very, very hard. i do keep my fridge quite cold, so i’m wondering if i should chip if off and fumble with the rock hard dough OR let the dough rest at room temp for a little while before forming the balls. any advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks for a wonderful website–i’ve love every recipe i’ve tried.
jen
Jen, I feel like Little Red Riding Hood, “My, grandmother, what a cold refrigerator you have!” My suggestion is to take the dough out of the fridge and let it soften enough to shape into the balls. If the dough get too soft, you can always slip the formed balls back into the fridge.
One tip a reader gave was to shape the just-made dough into balls and refrigerate those. Clever. Best of luck—and you must return and tell us how they turned out.
thanks so much for the quick reply, david—i’ll take your advice (refrigerating again if they seem too warm) and report back. like i said, i’ve been dying to try these for so long, i don’t want to do anything to mess up the dough :-)
p.s. i noticed the great suggestion to form ball and then refrigerate when i read comments this morning (unfortunately too late now, but i’ll definitely do that next time.
i’m back with raves for this recipe (GF Girl’s gluten free adaptation, but no doubt the original version is at least as good) and raves for the technique you developed that clearly makes a difference!! i take a bit of a scientific approach to things as important as great chocolate chip cookies, so i made a slight variation to your recipe and noted the comparisons below:
#1. your technique + your suggestion for dealing with my hard dough: after dough softened for 15 min, i portioned out 3 1/2 oz balls. i put the cookie sheet back in the refrigerator for 15 min, then baked for 18 min, left on the cookie sheet for 10 min before moving to cooling rack. PERFECTION—thickness just like i like them, slightly crisp on the edges and gooey heaven on the inside – YUM!!
#2. i didn’t need to let the dough sit before forming balls because it was soft enough from the 1st batch. i was curious to make smaller cookies and found Clotilde’s (Chocolate & Zucchini blog) smaller 1 1/2 oz dough balls & corresponding cook time. i formed balls, baked 14 min, transferred immediately to cooling rack. Pretty close to perfection, but since i prefer the texture that the 3 1/2 oz dough ball bakes too, i’d probably bake them up like you suggest and; just cut the cookie in half when i need a smaller craving satisfied and eat the whole darn thing when necessary. :-)
thanks again for your response this morning and for suffering through all the research to come up with such a great cookie:-)
jen
Jen, my pleasure. So glad they came out well, and that you found a way to tailor them to your liking. Give Rochester a big hello for me. I attended RIT.
Our pleasure.
And now for an overseas report…Going back to New York I, naturally, visited the City Bakery for my cookie fix (…and hot chocolate…and marshmallow…and…). So I had a control sample. Then, using Greek bread flour, my standard substitute for cake flour (“soft” flour + cornstarch) and Valrhona chocolate chunks, I went for it. The results were excellent. I also froze a couple of baked cookies, then heated/defrosted in a toaster oven. Not as good, but still tons better than regular store bought. So this is one recipe that travels.
Thoughts on how this would translate (temperature, cooking time) for smaller cookies? Would love to make more than 6 cookies out of this recipe and would be interested in any suggestions on adjusting the time (other than watching for when they appear to be done). Thanks in advance.
Hi Kim, the recipe makes 18 cookies, not six—don’t know if you saw that.
If you make smaller cookies, it would definitely change the texture and flavor. But if you want to try, the temperature would remain the same, and the time would depend upon how small you make the cookies. To make 32 cookies (cookies half the size of the original), I’d say about 9 to 10 minutes—but this is only an approximation. I’d suggest baking just one cookie and using that as guide, either adding or subtracting time.
David,
Thanks for the great recipe! I bake dozens of cookies each week and take them to area teachers and school staff as ‘have a great day’ gifts — they filled out surveys so I know their favorites. Do you have a great Oatmeal Raisin recipe? Also, I have tried to add malt powder to cookie recipes because my family likes the flavor, it seems to make the cookies very flat — any advice?
Thank you!
Lori
Hi Lori,
Glad you like the recipe. It’s one of my favorites. When you say you add malt to cookie recipes, do you mean malted milk powder or actual barley malt? I occasionally use malt in bread making, but I suspect what you are using is malted milk. That product is a mixture of barley malt, flour, milk, and maybe salt, added sweeteners, and flavorings. It is what is used to make malted milkshakes.
It’s hard to say why this would make your cookies flat without knowing all the ingredients in the brand you used. I’d guess that it is the barley malt and contains added sugars. Cookie recipes are usually carefully balanced to produce a specific result, for example, thin and crispy or thicker and chewy. Even slight adjustments of ingredients can cause a significant change in the cookie’s texture.
Cindi
I did mean malted milk powder, thank you for the clarification. I have only found a few recipes for malted milk cookies, probably the best on the Pioneer Woman’s website. I have used Ovaltine and Carnation brands and made several attempts, sometimes crushing malted milk balls too. I change recipes often and have 2 unique cookies, a twist on ranger cookies, and a very unique one I call struesel cookies, which people ask for and rave about often. Now I would like to have a better cookie recipe using the malted milk powder as well as a better oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. Thank you for any and all help!!
Lori, is it possible, and I ask this with terrible humility, to share the streusel cookie recipe with us…?
Lori,
I looked up Carnation malted milk powder and its ingredients include: Sugar, Wheat Flour And Malted Barley Extracts, Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Milk, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate, Artificial Flavor. As you can tell from this label listing, sugar is the main ingredient and it clocks in at over 50%. That will certainly affect the texture of your cookies. Lecithin, an emulsifier, and sodium bicarbonate, baking soda, will also make a noticeable difference. Since it’s not possible to tell exactly how much of either is in the mixture, I can’t advise you on the adjustments you might need to make. I don’t have any experience with malted milk cookies, but there does seem to be lots of recipes on-line that could provide ideas for experimentation. It’s going to take some trial and error.
And I will second David’s request. I adore anything with streusel.
Cindi
Cindi, Thank you for your research! I have tried four recipes I have found online so far but will now use your information to try to adjust them to make a better cookie.
David and Cindi, I am excited you want my streusel cookie recipe and would love to share it with you, and I am sure you will be able to improve it. Is the easiest way to send it like this? Or as an attachment? I just got back from a two-day soccer tourney with six boys, so making some cookies sounds like a quiet break if you would like a photo, too.
Lori
Lori, you can send it to me at david@leitesculinaria.com.
Ok I have just made a batch and now the wait. However reading the postings I too want a copy of the streusel cookie recipe. Anyone willing to share?
Lori,
Did you ever find out how to “bulk up” those malted milk cookies? Different type of flour? More flour?
David,
I finally sent the recipe to your email. Hope you and Cindi like it. Thank you for your website. I have 6 large events and 2 private dinners in the next 6 weeks — nothing for you I am sure, but, I am asked to cater more and more thanks to great sites like yours I am improving even though I could not take the time to go away and be classically trained.
Lori
HI David,
Your cookie recipe is amazing! I was just given your recipe from someone I know who recently made the cookies and shared them. I am so anxious to now make them myself, as I love to bake. The only problem is getting a bittersweet chocolate discs that will compliment this recipe. The one you direct people to purchase is sold out—so I was wondering if you can suggest something else that might be available and a bit more economical. Would you suggest just using another good form of bittersweet chocolate with the appropriate % of cocoa—and if so—any other suggestions where to find it? I have tried some delicious Belgium chocolate from Trader Joes and was even thinking Whole Foods might carry something similar?
Thanks!
Hi Karen, thanks for the kind words. Whole Foods carry Valrhona feves—ovals of bittersweet chocolate. If those are unavailable, you can buy bittersweet chocolate bars (a favorite of mine is Lindt) and carefully break it apart. You want pieces the size of a quarter. I’ve used them in a pinch.
Good luck and make sure to come back here and let us know how they turn out!
Hi David, quick question for you. Is is okay to use cake flour that already has baking powder and salt added? Should I just omit them in the recipe?
Geoff, I’d steer clear of self-rising cake flour. You’re not going to be able to calculate the proper amount of leavening, which will throw off the recipe. I’d stick to plain old cake flour. Happy baking!
What an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe! I made a couple of adjustments to the recipe and got big thumbs up from all of our kids (Chocolate chip cookie experts, all of them!). I added about 1/4 cup finely chopped coconut and I used all unbleached flour. I increased the flour by 4 Tbsp. for a higher rising and “cake-ier” cookie. The resting period in the fridge was torture, but well worth the wait.
I have E. Guittard chocolate disks (72%) and various bars of the same category, quality. Should I use the disks (they seemed rather large to me) or chop a chocolate bar? The feves at our store seem about half the size of the Guittard disks, so I was confused as to what exact size chocolate we need. Please advise! I’d like to make today. So eager to try! Stephanie
Hi Stephanie. The disks I use are about the size of a quarter, and about twice the size of a Valrohna feve. Does that help?
Yes! Then my disks are perfect! Thanks…let you know how they turn out!
Lovely cookie! Great texture! I forgot the fleur de sel and still loved them. Thanks David for your direction! Stephanie
Stephanie, so glad you enjoyed the cookies. And with the fleur de sel, it’s amazing.
So, after months of delay (actually fear of eating the whole batch) I finally made these. I LOVE everything about them except I have an issue with the coarse salt. Would you please specify what brand you used?
I used Roland Sea Salt Coarse Crystals and they never melted down into the dough, even after 36 hours. The crystals remained in crunchy chunks and if you got a few in a bite it is very unappealing. I had wondered about the salt when it wouldn’t go through the sifter but went through with following the recipe, and just stirred them in with the rest of the dry ingredients.
I’m a little bummed b/c everything from the flour to the egg size was so exact, and my recipe got hung up on the salt!
Thanks so much,
Mary
Hello, Mary. The salt I use is Morton’s Kosher salt. I changed it so that it now reads “Kosher.” I hope this helps!
Since its debut, this has been my ”go-to” recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Needless to say, I bake them frequently (including in my sleep). However, I was thinking about playing with the flavor profile. If I wanted to brown the butter, how much more of it do you think I would need (I think the evaporation of the milk solids would require me use more)?
Thanks in advance!
Tiff
Tiff, good questions–and I don’t have an exact answer. The best thing to do is brown the butter and see how much you have (in a measuring cup). Check that amount against the recipe. If there is a significant different, then add that much more to the recipe. The butter won’t cream the way regular butter does, and it will affect the texture of the cookies, so you will have to experiment with that, too.
As I type a batch of these gorgeous looking cookies are resting in my fridge…I stumbled upon this recipe when browsing your fab website and am really looking forward to seeing how they turn out!
I’ve had to do some adapting as we don’t have specific “cake flour” here in England but some googling helped me to find a suitable substitute! Nor did I fancy the astronomical shipping costs (or the long wait for that matter!) for the chocolate so found (what in hope) is a replacement…fingers crossed it won’t effect the outcome too greatly!
Hannah
Please tell us how they turn out!
OH. MY. GOODNESS. These are so yummy! They are definitely worth the wait! Will undoubtedly be making these again!
Hannah
Hannah, now you know why I’ve been beating the drum about these amazing cookies!
Hi David,
My favorite commercially made chocolate chip cookie of all time is made in Santa Cruz, CA. I did a little research into their recipe to find that malted barley flour is an ingredient, and that it is a similar consistency and protein content of cake flour(?). Would this substitution effect the taste and/or consistency? What is the advantage of this ingredient in a cookie? The Santa Cruz bakery uses a 2 oz ball for a very generously sized cookie… doesn’t a 3.5 oz dough ball make a HUGE cookie???
Heidi, without testing this, I can’t (and don’t feel comfortable) saying if it would affect it. The cake flour and bread flour create a slightly different protein/gluten make up, making the cookies a bit more chewy. A 3 1/2-ounce ball of dough makes about a 5- to 6-inch cookie, which allows for the different textures and flavors, as stated above.
Cheryl, I’m so happy to be a part of ending your quest for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. I know I have stopped looking. I. am. content.
Dscowell, so good to hear from you! (Yes, she was my personal assistant on board the Nieuw Amsterdam during a demo of this recipe.) My pleasure, and just doing my job for baking-dom!
These are the best chocolate chip cookies…for chocolate chip cookie haters! I have made them twice in the past week, and a few of my picky-eater friends who say they normally don’t like chocolate chip cookies have raved over them. Everyone else have not been able to keep their hands off them! I also used a bit of the batter mixed in with some vanilla Haagen Daz and sea salt for a perfect cookie dough ice cream!
Ashley, so glad your haters are now lovers. And…I thought I was the only one who put the dough in the ice cream. I love it. It makes for the best dessert. Move over, Mssrs. Ben and Jerry/
Hi David, I can’t wait to try these cookies, but do you think I can substitute the cake flour with pastry flour?
Hey Josie. I’d avoid it, if you can. Cake flour and pastry flour aren’t interchangeable, so the cookies will have a different texture. If you must–and only if you must!–you can use all all-purpose flour.
I just found this recipe and plan to make it asap, but I have a question. The ingredients list calls for kosher salt, but the instructions say, “sprinkle with sea salt.” Do you mean that the kosher salt goes IN the cookie and the sea salt on top? Or did you mean we should sprinkle with kosher salt. I have sea salt, but will have to go out and buy kosher salt.
Hi msmollynd. Yes, the kosher salt goes in the cookies and the sea salt is sprinkled on top just before baking. I edited the recipe to make it clearer.
Thanks so much, David. I’ve looked online and I can’t tell whether there is a significant difference between sea salt and Kosher salt that makes it worth going out again to get it.
I am also using Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips because I’m not sure where to find the ones you specify in time to make the cookies this weekend. When I make them again I hope I can find the ones you specify or something similar. We do have a specialty baking shop in town that may carry them.
Best of luck and let me know how they turn out!
Can you make this without a mixer? I’m an old fashioned girl with a strong arm, please advise.
You can, as long as you’re able to match a batch of firm-ish cookies. What ever do you do when it comes to heavy, long beating for some cake recipes?
Hi, David. I have been waiting a long time to make these cookies, and the dough is chilling in the fridge right now :) I’ve never baked anything in which the recipe didn’t instruct the brown sugar to be “packed,” and I think I may have made a mistake. Should the 1.25 cups of brown sugar be packed?? Thanks for sharing an amazing recipe. I know when these come out of the oven tomorrow, I can consider my search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe DONE! Thank you!
Hi, Katie. Because weight it specified in the recipe, and (without chiding!) you should always use weight measures, especially when baking, I never really checked. As long as the sugar is gently packed, you’ll be fine. I’ll check the next time I’m in the kitchen. Thanks for the heads up.
Dear David,
I discovered your web site by trying to find Marian Burros’s plum cake. Wow! Now my family has enjoyed your chocolate chip cookies. It is a pleasure to see how kind your are in your emails. So here is my question:
While we love your cookies, we also love my own recipe, which has a more assertive flavor and texture of the dough. I put in wheat bran, toasted wheat germ, twice as much dark brown sugar as white sugar and a little sour cream. Believe it or not, all that whole wheat, and wheat germ and bran do not make for an unpleasant cookie! I would love to combine the wheat germ and whole wheat flavor and texture and the darker brown sugar flavor into your cookie. Please advise.
Here is my recipe:
1 c. all purpose unbleached flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. unbleached cake flour
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 cup wheat bran [NOT the cereal]
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
Sift the above together and set aside
1 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/2 c. super fine sugar
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
Cream the above for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy
2 eggs
Add 1 egg at a time to the creamed mixture
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons sour cream
Add these to the above sugar-egg-butter mixture
Now gradually stir in the sifted flour mixture until well blended.
Do not overmix.
2 cups chocolate chips or pieces [60% bittersweet]
Stir in gently.
Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie onto parchment covered cookie sheets and bake about 10 minutes OR until lightly browned. Cool about 10 minutes and remove from pans. Store in a cookie jar only after the cookies are entirely cool or they will stick together. They are only good for a few days so if they last longer, consider freezing and briefly reheating them in a warm oven.
Thank you!
Rochelle, I’m so thrilled you like the plum cake and the cookies. And a big thank you for your kind words.
Regarding your cookies, I really can’t say without making them. You’re using less and different kinds of flour, adding the wheat germ (which cuts the gluten formation), changing the type of sugar, using less butter, etc. Plus you’re changing the size of the final cookie as well as the baking time. This is the long way of saying this is an entirely different cookie! And it sounds great!, but I can’t give an assessment because baking is such a science. You’d have to try it and see if you like it. Please drop by and let us know how they turn out.
Hello,
We could not find bread flour on my country (Brazil).We only have all-purpose flour (7% protein) and whole wheat flour (14% protein). Is there any way to use a combination of these two instead? Thank you so much!
P.S.I made the cake flour (3/4 cup (100 grams) all purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch).
Hi, Liz. The best advice I can give you is to use only all-purpose flour. It’s not 100% ideal, but it will give you a better product than if you used the whole wheat flour. And because you live abroad, please use the weight measurements. I found when I used volume measurements when I lived in Portugal, my American recipes never quite came out the same. Best of luck!
Hi,
My brother-in-law made this cookie recipe and they were absolutely divine, seriously the best ever!! So naturally, I was eager to attempt these myself. As I was shopping for the ingredients, I could not find cake flour and I read the previous comments above, and you had said all-purpose flour would do. As I was making the recipe, I had a hard time with the butter and the sugar. The butter was refrigerated and it was kind of a mess combining the butter and sugar together. Once they cooperated, I continued with the recipe. I refrigerated the dough for the necessary time, and upon taking the cookies out of the oven, they didn’t look anything like my brother-in-laws. Also, the appearance of the cookies out of the oven was flat and crispy and they expanded enormously. Much to my dismay, they tasted okay, but not nearly as good as his!! What am I doing wrong?? Is it because of the bread and cake flour? Or my mishap with the butter and sugar? Please help me, as I am dying to perfect this amazing recipe.
Hi Charlotte, I don’t think your problem was with the flour. I think it was due to your butter and sugar creaming. The butter needs to be room temperature. If not, you have to really work the mixture risking over-creaming it. When that happens the air bubbles that slowly build up in the butter are released. And this can cause, flat, dense cookies.
Try again, this time with room-temperature butter (take it out of the fridge at least 2 hours before using), and I think you’ll find a big difference!
I think i know your problem. This happened to me. So I was making these and I, too, opened the oven to see a thin puddle of cookies. I was like wtf? i cant believe i just failed a simple cookie. So i was asking my friend to read me the recipe again. I used, like most people here, all-purpose flour. So naturally I read 2 cups minus 2 tbps flour. And then i add all the stuff together. I forgot to add in the other 1 2/3 cups worth of flour (to egual the second flour). So once i added that in and waited a bit, they turned out great. Dont forget the other flour. Just in case this mightve happpend. :)
Also, in response to David, I do not think the creaming of her mixture was the problem. If her cookie became super thin and crispy and expanded (they spread out due to being so thin) its b/c she didnt have enough flour and too much oil. As that type of cookie dough bakes, the butter and sugar will carmelize and form a nice crunchy/crispy texture. Its actually quite interesting. Adding more flour will help give the cookie more body, imo.
Hi Michael, I agree that more butter and sugar create a crisp cookie, but over-creaming can cause a flat cookie, too. But there’s no oil in this recipe…hmmmm.
Charlotte, did you use all the flour–all 1 pound, 1 ounce?
Hi! i just baked this cookie and noticed it’s a bit too greasy. I followed your recipe to the letter except the dough was chilled for 84 hours. Also i noticed in the video that your halved the golf ball sized dough and just wondering why you did it? How exactly was that done?
Hi Patricia, Hmmm. I’m not sure why the cookies were greasy. A few questions: How long did you let them sit out before forming them and baking? Did you weigh the flour or use a measuring cup? And if you used a measuring cup, was it for dry ingredients or wet ingredients?
Also, I watched the video, and I don’t see myself halving the cookie dough, making two smaller cookies. It’s been a long time, but I believe was simply testing it, while the hosts were speaking, by breaking it a bit to make sure the dough wasn’t too hard for demo purposes.
David, I am finally going to make these to bring to may daughter’s school. I need to make at the very least 60 cookies, should I just quadruple the recipe or make 4 different batches? Only reason I am asking that is with baking I have been realizing often one cannot simply double, triple or quadruple it.
Sofia, because most of the measurement are in weight, you probably can size up, but I do caution you. Things can get a little wonky when you go up that much. I’d suggest making two double batches. And remember…let them rest.
Thanks for the quick response David, perhaps I should double the batch this week and give it a whirl prior to making them for the school. Am sure my family won’t mind that! :P
Better counsel, I’ve never heard.
General consensus: everyone absolutely loved them. Not sure if my oldest daughter loved more eating the dough straight out of the fridge or the cookies. Actually I think both. Also took some to her dance school today and everyone was drooling!
These really are the best chocolate chip cookies. I’ve made this recipe countless times, and they always come out perfect! And I think I’ve tried just about every chocolate chip cookie recipe. Although not the same as freshly made dough, I always keep this dough (already scooped into cookie-sized portions) in the freezer just in case in need to pop a few cookies in the oven.
Way to think ahead, Bev! I wish I could be so forward-thinking…cookies made on a whim are the best kind.
Good Afternoon, David. I was reading this recipe and was interested in knowing why there is a 24 to 36 hour waiting period before baking. Could you explain what the benefit of waiting is and what differences occur if I don’t wait. Some of the reviewers are even stating a taste and texture difference in cookies baked in 24 hrs vs cookies baked in 36 hrs; why is that and what is the cause behind it? Thank you in advance for responding to these questions.
Hello Tiffany, welcome to Leite’s Culinaria. I’d be happy to answer your question. In short, the resting time allows the liquid to be better absorbed by the flour, which affects the texture. The sugar is also affected, giving the cookie a more complex flavor. You can read all about it in my New York Times article. And now you have to promise me you’re going to make a batch, right?!
WOW these cookies are AMAZING! My mother-in-law is the best cook & baker I know, but hopefully I can “one up her” during the holidays this year. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Colleen
Colleen, you are more than welcome! So glad that you have them in your holiday “arsenal”
Colleen, you’re more than welcome. And I’m sure you can do a little holiday upstaging with this recipe. (In fact, I know you can….!)
Dear David,
I’m fond of chocolate chip cookies. I’ve tried so many recipes with all purpose flour–not with bread flour or cake flour–which I baked right away after mixing the ingredients without putting the mixture in a fridge…. so I’m so eager to try this one. Thanks for this recipe.
My pleasure, Joy. Please let me know how they turn out.
These cookies are amazing! I’d like to turn them into chocolate chocolate chip cookies, meaning a chocolate dough. How much cocoa powder would be needed to accomplish this without negatively affecting the incredible texture?
Jo, I don’t want to steer you in the wrong direction. I didn’t test or develop the recipe as a double chocolate chip cookie. I think it best to start with a small amount, say 1/4 cup, of cocoa. Then go up from that. I’m sorry that I can’t give an exact amount with confidence. The cookie is so different from others that I can’t simply look up a common ratio.
David–these are ridiculous. They are absolutely delicious. I had three people tell me they were the best cookies they’d ever had. Thank you for making me the neighborhood hero!
Kristen, just doing my job, ma’am. (And thank you for being such a wonderful LC tester.)
I realize I’m several years late looking at this posting but my question is do you let the dough come to room temperature before scooping the cookies and baking? I took it out of the fridge just now and it is very firm; I don’t think it would be possible to scoop it out without letting it sit but I see no reference to this issue.
Hi Sasha. Good point. Let the dough sit until it’s still chilled but scoopable. I’ve even gone so far as to shape the balls when I make the dough and refrigerate them, so it’s easy to pop them on a cookie and sheet and bake.