Disclaimer: I am not a food snob. A person who is not ashamed of confessing her love for Velveeta, and a weakness for Ramen instant noodles, cannot possibly qualify as a food snob. However, I must say that unless you get a bag of Jacques’ chocolate disks (or, for added charm call them “fèves” like the French do), don’t bother making these cookies. Regular chocolate chips, or even the best possible quality chocolate cut in pieces simply won’t do the job. Food snob? Who, moi? 😉
JACQUES TORRES CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(by Jacques Torres, published at The New York Times)
Heads up:
Dough must be prepared 24 to 72 hours before baking the cookies!
1 + 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 + 1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 + 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 + 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 cups (minus 2 Tablespoons) cake flour
1 + 2/3 cup bread flour
1 pound bittersweet chocolate discs ( fèves)
Cream the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer until they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Add the vanilla and mix well.
Sprinkle the baking soda, baking powder, and salt across the mixture, distributing them as evenly as possible, and them into the dough. Add the flours and mix gently until just combined. Carefully stir in the chocolate disks, avoid breaking them into pieces, they must stay as intact as possible. Scrape down the dough neatly down into the mixing bowl and press a plastic wrap directly onto it. Refrigerate the dough for 24 to 72 hours.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Scoop the dough into balls just between the size of golf and tennis balls, adjusting any protruding chocolate discs so that they are horizontal in orientation. Bake them until they are pale golden brown, about 20 minutes. You can also make smaller balls of dough and bake them for a shorter time.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
I had so much fun making these cookies! First, they gave me the perfect opportunity to put to use a special gift from one of our graduate students (as I mentioned here). Second, the fact that the dough must be prepared in advance makes it a lot easier to bake them and bring them still warm to the lab, which was my main intention. I made them smaller than the recipe calls for, so they baked a little faster.
I also saved two cookie balls in the freezer, and surprised Phil on a Sunday morning with freshly baked cookies to go along with his cappuccino. I got some brownie points that weekend. Or, maybe they were cookie points? 😉
These are now my favorite choc chip cookies! They are deliciously messy to eat, as each disk melts in your mouth, giving off an intense chocolate flavor, absolutely decadent! I would not add nuts to these cookies, by the way. No distractions from the path to bliss. Only chocolate.
If you are in New York, visit Jacques Torres store and grab a bag or two of these disks. If you are not in the Big Apple, order them online by clicking here. They are perfect for baking, but also great for that late night chocolate craving. A couple of “feves”, and you are all set!
ONE YEAR AGO: Ina Garten’s Banana Bran Muffins
TWO YEARS AGO: Beer Bread with Roasted Barley
THREE YEARS AGO: Tomato Confit with Arugula and Zucchini
Bewitching Kitchen 
They look amazing, Sally…shame we can’t get the chocolate here! x
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Celia, I just heard from a friend via Facebook, and she told me she uses other disks and they work well. Maybe you can find chocolate disks in chocolatier shops in Australia – go for it! I think the shape is what matters here. Although I love Jacques Torres so much, I rather use his product 😉
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I love your writing, Sally, you are so witty! And yes, you are absolutely right, these Torres chocolate disks are to die for. I made the recipe (and a special trip to the Torres store downtown as I still lived in the NY area then) when the NYT first published it and these cookies are the gods of the chocolate cookie world. The only reservation I remember having is that they were a bit too sweet but then I don’t have a sweet tooth, so maybe I am not a good judge of that. Also it is easy to bump down the sugar in the recipe…
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You know, I don’t have a sweet tooth either, maybe next time I’ll cut the sugar down and see how I like the new version….
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Oh how I wish we could get that chocolate here, I will have to check if they deliver it here if I order online.
The way you describe them made me hungry and I have just had lunch!
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Well, maybe you can search for disks, see my reply to Celia above – I am not sure they ship during Summer months, it is too risky that it would all melt during the travel, or you would have to pay a fortune for a pack with ice.
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The chocolate is more apparent on one side than the other. I can only assume this is a mistake. I’ll send you my mailing address so I can get these off your hands!
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Katherine is lucky to be married to such an observant guy! Yeap, that was clearly a mistake, but the grad students helped me out and devoured them 😉
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What a pretty shop.. so you’ve been in one of his shops or did you purchase these online? They sound to die for…and your cookies.. warm with chocolate disks.. I would give anything for one of these right now..
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I got a bag as a gift from our student who had traveled to New York earlier this year. Lucky me! 😉
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I’ll say!!
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My husband and sons are on a serious chocolate chip cookie crusade these days… they have fun looking up recipes and trying different kinds – I will certainly be passing along these beauties! (I may just have to sneak 1 or 10 of them if they make this delectable recipe! ;-)).
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If you make them huge as they are supposed to be, I doubt you can sneak 10… 🙂 But honestly, I prefer them smaller. This way if I go back for seconds I don’t feel like a pregnant rhynoceros after.
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You have to be a food snob when it comes to large hunks of chocolate in your cookies. No question. I want to bite into one of those huge ooey gooey chocolate pieces!
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Glad you see my point! 😉
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I love your heads-up. Having the prep ahead of time called out at the beginning is a lifesaver for me. I’m terrible about reading recipes ahead of time. These do look like they’d be a winner with my two chocoholics too. 🙂
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Kristy, you have NO idea how many times I start a recipe for dinner only to find out that dry marinating the meat overnight is non-negotiable. (sigh, sigh, sigh)
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While these are obviously GREAT when they’re still warm, if you can manage to let them cool overnight, they actually get better…true story! The flavors meld together even more and become insanely delicious. This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ll make now, and I always make sure to refrigerate them for 36 hours and bake them the night before I need them! Oh, and I’ve always done fine with Ghiradelli bittersweets, fyi.
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Gorgeous cookies! So tempting and surely really addictive.
Cheers,
Rosa
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thats looking so yummy..!!
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