This looks identical to what @shrinkrap posted, upthread.
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The farmsfriendfood author says
“I got permission from Deborah at Cook’s Illustrated to share the recipe here, so please do give it a try. I think that you’ll enjoy this version of the perfect chocolate chip cookie as much as we did.”
This is the copy I printed out 20+ years ago, but missing is the picture of pulling the 1/4 cup dough ball into equal halves and joining the halves together.
Also missing are the nuts. CCC are dead to me without nuts, but husband likes them that way.
ETA found it! This was printed out 23 years ago almost to the day!
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Oh, also, no nuts, ew.
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No nuts!
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Any update?
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I’m absolutely not a fan of chunks of nuts in CCC or really any baked good outside of baklava, but a local bakery used to make amazing cookies with some finely ground walnut in the mix and I’ve had great success messing with it. 5%, maybe, and ground just barely above paste so it doesn’t feel like nuts at all when you’re eating the cookie. It adds an amazing flavor, but also totally changes the texture, making it much cakier. Not an every batch thing for sure but fun to play with.
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Now that’s interesting.
Yes, I have all the ingredients!
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So what’s the plan? When is judgment day?
Gonna start with the ATK, then Toll House, then KA.
No nuts or oatmeal allowed, so I have to scratch the recipes that rely on them, like the Doubletree and the Neiman Marcus. And I will definitely refrigerate the dough. The Splendid Table recipe isn’t loading for me - I’ll keep trying.
I have ‘til 2/28.
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Plenty of time to experiment. Please post a photo or two of your results for those of us rooting for you. Good luck!
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Here is that recipe directly from Christina Tosi’s website:
(this is what comes up when you go to https://www.christinatosi.com/)
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Wow, not even nuts? That sounds like it’s really going to be about who is the best baker! IME, the ATK recipe will work for well for you. I think the resting time does wonders for the dough.
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I am cautiously optimistic. This group (more or less) did a chocolate chip cookie tasting last year (Culture Espresso won, if you’re interested), so now we want to have a boss battle.
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There is a seemingly limitless combination of variables even without nuts. Off the top of my head:
- Flour types (classic AP, a bit of whole wheat for a nutty flavor, bread flour for extra chewy cookies) … flour amounts … different flour brands! AP != AP
- Fats. Butter, brown butter, maybe some oil..? (I swear I used to see Crisco in recipes back in the 80s, not sure what the impact would have been there.) Could use a small amount of flavored oil too? I wonder what a dash of sesame oil would do…
- Eggs. Number of eggs of course. Egg temperature. Egg mixing time. How about type? Duck eggs perhaps?
- Chocolate: Darker, milkier, mixtures, chips, cut from bars or not, …
- Dough resting, or not. Baking chilled, or not.
- Dough shape: Ball or flattened, cookie size …
- Baking temp, convection or not, baking surface - parchment vs silicone pads, different pans …
Edit: I forgot salt and leavening agents! Even more variables…
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There are likes and dislikes all over the place, but FWIW:
I am ok with chewy but detest too soft.
I like a little crispness. (Actually I like a lot of crispness and can devour a bag of Famous Amos amazngly quickly.)
Extra salt and extra vanilla are always welcome.
Butter, and plenty of it, is very important, hopefully a high fat European style or Kerrygold.
The quality of the eggs is often overlooked. Find a source for pasture raised chickens laying eggs with big, orange yolks.
Chocolate varies widely. I am a fan of Ghirardelli semisweet. Try chocolates until you find one that really lights you up. However, just because you like a chocolate does not mean it works in a cookie. Pepperidge Farms has several lines that are pretty much identical except for the chocolate. Extensive sampling is in order.
I have on hand Kerrygold butter, eggs from Quattro Game Farm and chocolate from TJ’s that seems fancy. So I think I’m at least semi-alright.
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Crisco makes a much taller, lighter structure. I didnt know either until i made them side by side (I think I was out of something)
Butter has far superior flavor, though, so I usually use half and half these days.
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This is a post from Zoe Francois that looks at all the ingredients and factors in baking a chocolate chip cookie. We’ve had good luck with her recipe.
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David Lebowitz uses chopped good quality chocolate in his recipes I agree that could upgrade the flavor from chips (do you have to use chips?) I like his recipe that uses tahini (as well as butter) a great deal, but I guess that ingredient is not permissible inn this competition. I like the idea above of using some shortening in addition to butter for textures sake and I like alightly roasted pecans or walnuts in my cookies, if that is permitted.. I think you have to choose between crispy and chewy - what do you like better/is more likely to win?
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