My FAVORITE Chocolate Chip Cookie
I have experimented with countless recipes searching for that perfect chocolate chip cookie. The characteristics of the perfect cookie are a very personal matter, and here are my preferences:
texture: chewy w. medium thickness — everyone has their preference, and this is mine!
chocolate to cookie ratio: 50/50 — I really enjoy having a lot of chocolate in every bite
chips vs. chunks: chunks — I like sizeable pieces of chocolate in my cookie.
type of chocolate: bittersweet — I like using Valrhona 61% extra bitter
nuts or other add-ins: NONE!!
With the above criteria in mind, this recipe is the closest I’ve come to experiencing CCC perfection. It’s the “not so secret” secret recipe from Jacque Torres, and I’m sure many of you have read about this or already tried this at home. I’ve been making this recipe countless times, and have found that the following tips make this cookie absolutely perfect:
- Don’t substitute the pastry and bread flours w. AP flour. I really believe that the combination of the pastry and bread flours give the cookie a nice slightly crunchy exterior giving way to a really tender middle.
- Hand chopped chocolate chunks, NOT premade chips – I will purchase a hunk of the best bittersweet chocolate that I can afford and hand cut them into chunks. The easiest method to chop a block of chocolate: nuke the block at 50% power for a few seconds, no more. It softens the chocolate just enough. Then take a large kitchen knife and chop away! Your effort will be rewarded with really nice ribbons of melted chocolate throughout the cookie.
- Chill the cookie dough at least 24 hours (I let my dough sit anywhere from 2-3 days) before baking. This is not for taste reasons that were recently written about in an article from NY Times (god forbid we’re aging cookie dough…let’s leave that for wine and cheese). IMHO, refrigeration makes a difference with the look and texture. I think the dough sets in a way so when you bake the cookies, you end up with the lovely wrinkles and folds as the balls of dough spread and bake. Until I encounter another recipe that will move mountains, I think have finally found my perfect chocolate chip cookie!
I would love to hear about your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, so do share! 
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Jacques Torres’ Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Makes twenty-six 5-inch cookies or 8 1/2 dozen 1 1/4-inch cookies
Ingredients
1 pound unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.
- Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies.
- Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
84 Responses to My FAVORITE Chocolate Chip Cookie
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i used the base of this recipe tonight to make white chocolate reese’s peanut butter cookies.. aaammaazzing!
Yum! White chocolate is my favorite!! These sound very good!!
These are amazing!! My FAVORITE by far! Thanks so much for sharing them!! I will be making them often!
Does anyone know where I can find pastry flour and bread flour? I live in California and my local supermarket does not carry them. Do I need to order them only? Any help would be appreciated! I’m SUPER excited to make these! They look amazing!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Hi Pam,
I’m California based and I’ve always had luck finding pastry flour and bread flour at Whole Foods. If Whole Foods isn’t convieniently located for you, check out King Arthur Flour (www.kingarthurflour.com) to order by mail.
Good luck!
The Montana wheat or Montana white flour is awesome. Here in Utah they sell it at Walmart.
i’m in ca and i’ve never had trouble finding either anywhere. call around and check vons, sprouts and mothers if you’re not near a whole foods. where are you in ca?
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I made these, but let the dough sit overnight. OMG.
Also, make sure to sift the flour if you want lighter cookies!
Hmmm, I shall try this recipe. I’ve been in search of the perfect chocolate chip recipe as well. My CCC always end up thin and flat (basically, deflated) all the time. What am I doing wrong??? I’m going to try this to see if using different flours will help with the look and texture of my CCC!
Had the same problem w/flat ccc. Found out when I didn’t use my big expensive air ccookie pan sheets and used regular cooking sheets, they raised up fine. Go figure.
you may also want to buy new baking soda. after a few months, it loses it’s effect.
Be sure to only soften your butter, make sure it is not completely melted. It will help to make puffier cookies.
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After an exhaustive search, and countless millions of calories consumed in the process
, I found Alton Brown’s “The Chewy” and they are life-changing. I use Ghirardelli chocolate chips and he also suggests refrigerating overnight. In my mind, it makes the recipe that much easier because you can scoop on demand. I highly suggest the recipe. Yours looks amazing though. We may have to have a bake-off!
These were great. I cut the recipe in half and got 56 cookies. Just a FYI the recipe does not state when to add the salt. Being a frequent baker I added to the dry ingredients.
I could not find pastry flour. Googled and the info gave an alternative
50/50 cake flour and AP flour. I have bread flour in the freezer. I will halve the recipe. I am anxious to try this. I have been searching for a recipe for a soft or chewy CCC.
these cookies look AMAZING! They are currently in the oven and i cannot wait to try them.
I am a little worried, however. The instructions didn’t indicate when to add the salt, so I forgot to add it. Also, I couldn’t find regular white pastry flour in any of my grocery stores. I could only find whole wheat and whole grain pastry flour, so i used whole grain. Do you think forgetting to add salt and using wg pastry flour will make a big difference??
We I can’t share my favorite chocolate chip recipe because i think this is it. I made these last night…and omg…..they are wonderful.
I tried to follow the exact recipe…..the only changes i did were I only had them in the fridge overnight.
I used Whole wheat pastry flour, cause i the store did not have the regular.
I did not use 2 lbs of chocolate, but came close. I used mostly Ghiraldeli chocolate..
Aside from tasting spectacular….they were perfect baked at 350 for 15 min. I made different sizes and it still was 15 min. They came out a little crisp (which i love) and the recipe was nice and big.
So i froze some, stored some, and the rest went in the cookie jar.
My son is already on his 4th cookie….
This is definetly a keeper……and it is the perfect recipe!!!!
THANKS A BUNCH FOR POSTING !!TRISH
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I have been making these chocolate chip cookies for years. He was on Martha Stewart Living and made these cookies and I tried them that night and that was the end of the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie for me!!! The man is a genious…there’s no doubt about that. Thanks for sharing!!!
I am constantly on the search for the perfect recipe as well and this one, with your tips, sounds awesome. I have the same requests for my cookies, so I will be trying this one to the tee. Thanks!
P.S.- Found you on Pinterest (and totally repinned you)
- Emily
http://emily.kincke.com
http://pinterest.com/simplykincke/
Would love to try these! Does anyone know where to get pastry flour in the uk? Xx
I should have read this before I baked the cookies! I didn’t refrigerate the dough, but they still turned out nicely! I would have followed the recipe to a t, but I didn’t buy enough bittersweet chocolate, so I had to add extra dark chocolate chips to the dough in addition to the chunks. They still taste delicious! I made 30 very large cookies and put the rest of the dough into the freezer! Yum, yum, yum!
I have made these and they are fantastic!!! I ignored the “waiting 24 hours” step, very impatient. That step is very crucial to the awesome final cookie.
I cook the last night but the became more like a slight sponge cake than a biscuit.does anyone know why ??
Also, i let the dough in the fridge for 24 h. before having make the cooking form, so, one daddy later that, the dough was very rough and it cost me a lot to scoop a cookie. Do I have to refrigerate the dough once I have made the form of the biscuits?
Please, help!!!
Anyway, the taste was delicious!!
Thanks
A new baker- so wondering can I use whole wheat pastry flour AND whole wheat bread flour? Or at least whole wheat pastry flour? Thanks so excited to try!!!
After being in the fridge for 24h, does the dough need to be at room temp before putting it in the oven?
Ok…LOVE these and they were an absolute HIT with friends…so much so that I pulled out my stand mixer and did 2 more batches….the 2nd of which burned up the mixer…and dang! It was my bday gift from my son. It’s too bad that I really hated that thing because it was NOT what I wanted but I would never have told him that…LOL! My hand mixer had to finish the mixing but even it was dragging so I had to be careful.
I didn’t have anything other than plain all purpose flour to use….it’s about all our small town has in the store. It was still great and I can only imagine what it would be like with the listed flours.
You do need to note that I HATE making cookies because I like brownies, cakes, pies, anything that doesn’t require the individual dropping of cookies…these have converted me! Thanks for that! My family and friends thank you for that too!
I did one batch with white chocolate/macadamia and another with what I call “triple chip”…bittersweet, milk chocolate & peanut butter chips. I don’t like peanut butter in most of my baked goods but everyone else loved them.
PS…OH and my poor large Pampered Chef scoop didn’t last on that 2nd batch either. It’s a really stiff dough to work with and I didn’t let it sit out long enough to come more to room temp before trying to scoop.
Thank you so much for posting this!!! It was a perfect combination of chewy chocolate goodness n is now my favorite go to recipe.