Chocolate Chip Cookies a la Jacques Torres

After trying a number of different chocolate chip recipes, the one I have come to rely on is a recipe from Jacques Torres that appeared in an article in the New York Times in July 2008. For me, there are two key takeaways from this recipe:

1) The cookie dough is best when it has rested for between 24 and 36 hours. When you think about this, it makes a lot of sense, but the biggest challenge is actually planning ahead. When I think about making cookies from scratch, I want those results instantly, not in 24 to 36 hours. I have tested both the 24 hour and 36 hour versions. It really is worth the wait for 24 hours, the cookies come out with a deeper, richer, better all around flavor.

2) Most chocolate related baking recipes call for adding salt at some point in the process. However, adding sea salt to the top of the cookie as well, results in a cookie with a little exclamation point of sea salt and chocolate.

Ingredients (exactly from the published recipe)
- 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 (see note)
- Sea salt

Notes: 1) I used All Purpose Flour instead of the bread and cake flours (purely based on what was available and what I had in the pantry).
2) For the chocolate, I used 60% cocoa, but used a combination of disks and chopped chocolate bars. Including chopped chocolate bars add little (and larger) flakes of chocolate to the cookie.

Recipe
Follow the recipe instructions included in the article.