Thank you to everyone for all of your support and good wishes for me in the Bake-Off. I recieved over 340 comments on my Snickerdoodle Snack Cake Bake-Off post! It was so fun traveling to New York, meeting the other contestants and competing in my first bake off in the Unilever Test Kitchens. Congratulations to Sara, Average Betty, for her winning Snowball Cupcake recipe.
The I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Bake-Off judges were so nice and liked my Snickerdoodle Snack Cake. Normajean, Unilever’s Test Kitchen Director, said it did taste like a Snickerdoodle cookie and Barry, ICBINB Brand Manager, even ate his entire sundae. The PR firm who arranged the trip was awesome and took care of every little detail. We were treated to limo rides, cooking demonstrations, and breakfast and lunch at the Test Kitchen with some of the delicious recipes they’ve created in the Test Kitchen for the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! website.
Anna, Cookie Madness, was also one of the contestants. (She won the Pillsbury Bake-Off in 2006.) Anna did a great recap of the Bake-Off and while I was there reading her recap, of course I had to check out her cookie recipes. She has a great top 10 list of favorite cookies and I’d love to bake my way through it one day.
But it was her description of Jacques Torres’s Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie that really caught my eye. “Crunchy edges, tender centers, lots of nooks & crannies and plenty of chocolate. These are the perfect chocolate chip cookies. Your friends will think you bought them at a bakery.” Since I had some Scharffen Semisweet Dark Chocolate Baking Chunks in the pantry that I’d been saving for a fantastic recipe, I decided to give Jacques recipe a try.
I baked one batch of the huge 4 oz chocolate chip cookies and they do bake up like a beautiful bakery cookie. I like my chocolate chip cookies a little more chewy in the middle, but these are the prettiest chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made and they would make a great Christmas gift individually wrapped. [/donotprint]
Jacques Torres’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ pound unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup plus 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon pastry flour*
- 1 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda*
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 pound good quality dark chocolate chopped coarsely
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside. Don’t grease the baking sheets because this might cause extra spreading.
- 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 vanilla, then add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate; mix until well combined.
- Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, (I used a very generously rounded tablespoon) 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. If you use a rounded tablespoon, check your cookies at 12 minutes. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
This post is part of a 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hog. Be sure and check out all of the fabulous cookies the other 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies bakers baked up this week.
ingrid
I am so not a cookie baker but I do enjoy eating them.
Thanks for sharing your bake off experience with us!
~ingrid
Beth
Your chocolate chip cookies look wonderful. I’ve heard of this recipe before, and I’m tempted to try it out!
Sounds like you had a great time at the bake-off. You look great in your photos!
marcellina
What fun you must have had at the Bake-off and these choc chip cookies do look fantastic. I have an award for you over at my blog. I hope you will accept as you so deserve it!
April
I am glad NYC was fun!!!! These cookies are beautiful and they look delish!
Gera@SweetsFoodsBlog
How excellent meeting and all that delicious stuff there – I’m gaining weight only watching- but worth 🙂
My sweet tooth is at the sky right now – that chocolate chip cookies are awesome!
Cheers,
Gera
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
It sounds like you had a marvellous trip mum! I’ve always wanted to go back to NY and it sounds like you saw it in style. Well done! 😀 xxx
Daniela
Mi ripeto sei bravissima nell’arte di fare i biscotti, anche questi dono perfetti e molto invitanti. Buona domenica Daniela.
Kim
Barbara – You are so right – these really are very pretty cookies! I’m curious about the use of the pastry flour (it’s an approach I haven’t tried before). I wonder if it’s the pastry flour that gives them their crisp edges? Seems like most cc cookies with that much brown sugar are almost always chewy. Either way, they look absolutely delicious and I think it was just the right recipe to break out the Scharffenberger.
sameena
Hi,
They look gorgeous dear…:)
Dr.Sameena@
http://www.myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com
sameena
Hi Barbara,
Those look gorgeous dear..as always…:0
Dr.Sameena@
http://www.myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com
deeba
Super Barbara, just so SUPER that you went off to NYC for the bake-off. Am so happy for you, and loved this post. Love the cookies too, and you have me nibbling a corner of your blog with the description. This is just how I love them too GF… I’ll just have to make them with whichever chocolate I have! HUGS!!!
shaz
Glad you had fun at the bake-off Barbara! Mm, another choc-chip cookie to add to my burgeoning list 🙂 Have a yummy weekend.
Jamie
I always love seeing friends gather up the courage and participate in things like this bake-off! And it sounds like you had such a fabulous time. Thanks for all the links. And these cookies look and sound amazing and I’ve so bookmarked them. My kind of cookies indeed!
kristy
I’m sure you had lots of fun there during the event & congrats to the winner! Btw, this cookies looks great Thanks for the recipe and happy weekend.
Kristy
teresa
it’s a total chocolate chip cookie day for me today, so there is a very good chance of me making these!
Anna Johnston
Oh Wow Barbara. Did you find the bake off a bit nerve wracking? I always found competition cooking pretty intense, sounds a wonderful experience and these cookies sound great, I mean seriously…. the world could never have enough chockky cookies right, so this one is great.
Cookin' Canuck
It sounds as though you had a wonderful time, Barbara. These cookies look and sound fantastic. Jacques Torres definitely knows what he’s talking about!
Blond Duck
I’m so glad it went well! Those cookies look great!
Eliana
Hmmmm – These cookies look absolutely picture perfect Barbara.
Tracy
These look wonderful, Barbara! They definitely look like they came right out of a bakery. Sounds like the Bake-Off was lots of fun too!