Bouchon Bakery: Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are the quintessential go-to favorite dessert, after-school or tucked-into-your-home-packed-lunch treat. Everyone has their preferred chocolate chip cookie. Some like the soft, chewy types. Others prefer the crunchy kinds that don’t have a hint of softness at all. If you’re me, you prefer something in-between those two types – a crisp outer edge, with just the right amount of chewiness in the center. Just as everyone has their preferred type of chocolate chip cookie, everybody has (or should have) a good, go-to recipe.

Can I tell you the truth – I don’t have a good go-to recipe. Chocolate chip cookies are the one single cookie variety that eludes me constantly. When I make chocolate chip cookies, I usually think things are going wonderfully. The dough comes together brilliantly, tastes incredible, and then I follow various directions and wind up with pancake-like cookies. Or one gigantic sheet pan-of-cookie. I am on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. We are not there yet, you and I.

But this recipe… it’s a good one. It isn’t The One. But it’s closer than I’ve been before. This recipe comes from Bouchon Bakery, one of Thomas Keller’s brilliant restaurants. Thomas Keller, the American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. Thomas Keller, the owner and mastermind of incredible restaurants I dream about checking out one day, like The French Laundry in Yountville, California (whose gardens I dream of equally as much). These cookies are the lovely combination I enjoy so much – crisp and tender at the same time. The flavor is pleasurable – the hint of blackstrap molasses shining through without overpowering the brown sugar sweetness of this cookie, laden with both chocolate chunks and chips. This cookie… it’s a good one. Give it a try while I hunt down something even closer to The One for us. Maybe try out another recipe from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook – everything sounds good and the mouth-watering photographs are gorgeous as well.

Bouchon Bakery‘s Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
1 3/4 teaspoons unsulphured blackstrap molasses
1/2 cup + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2/3 cup chunks of dark chocolate (70-74%, in 3/8-inch pieces)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
60 grams eggs (about 1 large egg), room temperature

Directions:

Place the flour in a medium bowl. Sift in the baking soda, then add the salt. Whisk together. Place the dark brown sugar in a small bowl and stir in the molasses and granulated sugar, breaking up any lumps; the mixture won’t be smooth.

Place the chocolate chunks in a strainer and tap the side to remove any powdered chocolate, which will cloud the cookies. Gently mix with the chocolate chips.

Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, attaching the paddle. Turn to medium-low speed and cream the butter, warming the bowl if needed, until it is the consistency of mayonnaise and holds a peak when the paddle is lifted. Add the molasses mixture and mix until fluffy (3-4 minutes). Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the egg, then mix on low speed for 15 to 30 seconds, until just combined. Scrape the bowl again. The mixture may look broken, but that is fine (overwhipping the eggs could cause the cookies to expand too much during baking and then deflate).

Add the dry ingredients in 2 additions, mixing on low speed for 15 to 30 seconds after each, or until just combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to incorporate any dry ingredients that have settled. Add the chocolate and pulse on low speed about 10 times to combine. Refrigerate dough for 45 minutes.

Position the racks in the upper and lower third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 12 equal positions. Roll each one into a ball between the palms of your hands. Space the dough far enough apart that only 6 fit onto each pan. With a short end of the pan toward you, place one cookie in the upper left corner, one in the lower left corner and the third one in the center, toward the right side of the pan. Bring the dough to room temperature before baking.

Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes in a convection oven, 14 to 16 minutes in a standard oven, reserving the positions of the pans halfway through baking. Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely.

The cookies are best the day they are baked, but they can be stored in a covered container for up to 3 days.