Chipper

Yesterday, I made these chocolate chip cookies. I'd found the recipe in the New York Times; it was yet another of the ultimate chocolate chip recipes, the sort that bring cookbook writers to the edge of a shivering paroxym of lust. I thought it wasn't bad.

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

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 coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
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
Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and 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 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. 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. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

There are a couple of amazing things about this recipe. One is the flour -- it uses a combination of cake flour and bread flour; another is the chocolate, which is high-end stuff. (I used Ghiradelli.) Yet a third is how long it takes to make -- at least twenty four hours in a refrigerator for the flavors to develop. And the sea salt. Sea salt? Yup.

And then there's the size. Despite the large amount of flour and chocolate, the recipe makes very few cookies -- but they're big - 3.5 ounces. I made one that size, and three that were smaller, but still quite hefty -- 2.0 ounces. Other than that the smaller ones were firm while the larger was relatively soft in the middle, they tasted the same. Sorry to say, I did not not taste any of the grace notes that the recipe and accompanying article would lead one to expect. Perhaps I simply don't have an educated palate.

Here's the result.