From inthekitchenwithkath.com
(Adapted from the recipe in The Essential New York Times Cookbook. The recipe was developed by David Leite, who gave much credit to Jacques Torres’s recipes.)
I did follow the recipe’s advice to use a combination of cake flour and bread flour. You certainly could try it using all-purpose flour. I suspect that the results may not be quite the same, but the cookies will probably still be delicious.
Makes 18 – 20 large cookies
1¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons (8½ ounces) cake flour
1⅔ cups (8½ ounces) bread flour
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons course salt (I used Kosher.)
2½ sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1¼ cups (10 ounces) packed dark brown sugar (I used dark, Leite used light.)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content *
Sea salt for sprinkling
* I used what I could find at my supermarket: One 11.5 ounce bag of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips and 8.5 ounces of Ghirardelli Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. (I didn’t realize they were “mini” until I opened the package.) The cookies were fabulous! Next time I’ll probably use all bittersweet chocolate. The point is this: use the best chocolate you can find, and afford. Your cookies will be wonderful!
1. Put the cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and course salt in a bowl. Stir or whisk well to combine.
2. Beat the sugars and butter together in a mixer on medium speed for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Mix in the vanilla extract.
5. With the mixer at low speed, add the flour mixture and mix just until the dough is combined, about 10 seconds.
6. Carefully stir in the chocolate pieces.
7. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. (When you bake the cookies, you can bake them in batches, keeping the dough covered and refrigerated for up to 72 hours.)
8. Preheat the oven to 350˚.
9. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
10. Make 6 large balls of dough. They should each weigh about 3½ ounces. Arrange the 6 balls of dough on the baking sheet.
11. Lightly press the dough down a bit with the palm of your hand, and then sprinkle the cookies with sea salt.
12. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes. (20 minutes was perfect in my oven.)
13. Place the baking sheet on a rack to cool for 10 minutes.
14. Repeat with the rest of the dough, or cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it to bake the next day.
15. The cookies are really best eaten warm as soon as they’ve finished their 10-minute cooling off period. We found, though, that they are still extraordinary after they’ve completely cooled down.