New York Times' Chocolate Chip Cookies

New York Times' Chocolate Chip Cookies 
without nuts on top
with nuts below

I normally don't follow food trends and believe the cookie everyone says is the BEST really is the BEST, but this one is the exception. These cookies are really the ideal crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle cookie that most people just adore in a chocolate chip cookie. They're even still great the next day, which is something I very rarely say. 

I think I found this recipe on 3 different websites, but am linking We Are All Magic here because it's a sharp looking website. I did add salt to the dough, which at least two of the sites I went to did NOT include. They both did have Maldon Sea Salt as an option to sprinkle on top of the cookies though. Additionally, I browned one stick of the butter because my favorite chef Claire Saffitz does that frequently in her cookie recipes.

I highly recommend you use the best chocolate you can find & afford because it does make a difference. And do take the time and effort to to brown the butter because it also takes these cookies to the next level. Do it.

And enjoy.


New York Times' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from weareallmagic.com

Ingredients:

• 8.5 ounces cake flour (2 cups minus 2 tablespoons)
• 8.5 ounces bread flour (1 2/3 cup)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (Diamond Crystal; if using Morton's use 3/4 teaspoon)
• 2 1/4 cups (10 ounces) butter
• 10 ounces packed light brown sugar (1 1/4 cup)
• 8 ounces white sugar (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1.25 pounds good quality chocolate chunks or chips (about 3 1/3 cups -- I use Nestlé Dark Chocolate Morsels)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (toasted), optional

Instructions:

• Place 6 ounces of the butter in a large mixing bowl. Brown 1/2 cup (4 ounces) of the butter by heating it in a heavy bottomed pan over medium low heat, stirring almost continuously. When the butter solids are a deep golden brown, carefully pour the melted browned butter over the other butter in the butter in the mixing bowl, making sure to scrape all of the browned butter into the bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature before using. You can stir the butter to speed this up.

• While the butter cools, sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

• Add the brown sugar and white sugar to the butter in the mixing bowl. Beat butter an sugar on high until light and fluffy. 

• Add eggs and vanilla and beat again until light and fluffy again.

• Add the flour, soda, baking powder, and salt mixture and mix on low just until combined. 

• Stir in chocolate chips/chunks to distribute evenly.*

• Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper.

• Scoop dough in about 2-3 tablespoon dollops/balls and place on wax paper in prepared pan. Smoosh each ball down into a thick disk. When all dough has been portioned, cover and refrigerate or freeze. If you plan to bake the next day, just refrigerate. If you want to have dough on hand to bake a few at a time, freeze and then transfer frozen dough to zip log freezer bags.

• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes.

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place dough discs on the parchment-lined pan, about 2 inches apart. 

• Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-15 minutes or until edges are starting to turn golden brown.

• Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan for about 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

• Store baked cookies in an airtight container and consume within 2 days for best taste. 

Makes about 3 dozen 4-inch cookies

*Today I divided the dough in half and added half of the chocolate chips to one half of the dough. To the other half of dough, I added a fourth of the chocolate chips and probably 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans. I like to give people choices.

Weighing the ingredients works best for me.

Browned butter and sugars

The butter and sugars didn't quite get fluffy today.

After the addition of eggs

With nuts and without

Ready to bake

Post-bake

Ready for the freezer

Sourdough Bagels

So many things are going on right now. I'm starting a new job next week and I'm going to be overlapping that with my current job for a few weeks. So, with my last two days off before a 9-day stretch with no day off, I decided to try my hand at sourdough bagels. I was already making sourdough loaves to have on hand in the freezer, and I had some extra ripe starter, so I looked up a recipe and found the perfect recipe on The Perfect Loaf. 

I really recommend looking at the recipe there, as they really do a great job explaining the recipe better than I did here, timeline and all. I tweaked the recipe a bit, so I decided to post it here mainly for myself to replicate in the future.

These bagels take a bit more time than the usual ones, but they are so much more satisfying. Today I made plain, Asiago, and everything bagels--all of them fantastic. 

If you are itching to try out sourdough bagels, give these a go. You will love them.

Sourdough Bagels
     Adapted from The Perfect Loaf

Ingredients:

Levain

• 116 g bread flour
• 65 g water
• 30 g ripe sourdough starter

Bagel Dough

• 850 g bread flour
• 475 g water
• 30 g white sugar
• 30 g molasses or barley malt syrup
• 18 g salt
• 7 g non-diastatic malt powder
• batch of levain (noted above)

Boiling and Topping

• 3-4 quarts of water
• 2 tablespoons rice flour (for boiling)
• toppings, such as shredded Asiago cheese, everything bagel seasoning, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc.

Instructions:

The evening before you plan to mix the bagel dough, mix the levain in a wide-mouth pint size mason jar, or in a small bowl. This mixture will be quite stiff, but try to mix it completely. You and take it out of its container and kneed it, if that helps. Cover levain loosely and allow to ferment overnight (about 12 hours) in cozy location.

In the bowl of a sturdy stand mixer, mix about a quarter cup of the water with the sugar, molasses, malt powder, and salt. Add the ripe levain, remaining water, and the flour. Mix on low for about 5-6 minutes or until it looks relatively smooth and elastic. Transfer dough to a bowl or other proofing container. Loosely cover and allow to ferment until puffed, about 3-4 hours.

Note: Do not use bench flour when working with this dough. It should not be sticky enough for that.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Turn the dough out onto a clean counter and divide evenly into 12 pieces (I used my digital scale for this). At this point you can choose to shape the bagels one of two ways: rope or ball. I used the rope method, and today the bagels turned out a bit wonky. Once your bagels are formed place them on the prepared baking sheet.

When all are done, cover the baking sheet with a lid or a large plastic bag, and allow them to proof for 2-4 hours at room temperature. If they don't seem to puff at all, just put them in the fridge anyway after 3-4 hours. Leave in the fridge overnight.

When you're ready to boil and bake, preheat your convection oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit (or 500 degrees F for non-convection). Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Fill a wide-mouth pot or dutch oven about half full of water and bring to a boil. Add the rice flour and whisk to incorporate (this helps give the bagels a nice shine).

Boil bagels in batches of 3-4 for about 1 minute, turning each bagel at the half-minute mark. Using a spatula with holes, or other straining kitchen tool, scoop each bagel out, tap bottom of spatula on a kitchen towel to drain a bit, and slide bagel onto the prepared baking sheet. Immediately top with toppings that you want to stick. Continue with remaining bagels, placing about 6-8 bagels on each pan, making sure to not crowd them if you don't want them to touch.

Bake bagels at 475 for about 7 minutes, and then turn oven down to 450 to bake another 6-7 minutes, or until they are deep golden brown. Carefully transfer bagels to a cooling rack to cool at least 10 minutes before enjoying. (Note: I used a baking steel and baking stone and slid the bagels onto the stone/steel on the parchment, and this produced nice crisp exteriors. I you don't have either of those items, baking the bagels on the baking sheets will be just fine.)