Chocolate chip cookies win every match they face. Even during Christmas cookie season, they’re favorites 78% of the time in one-on-one showdowns with sugar cookies, brownies, or any other variety.
But in the world of chocolate chip cookies, there are several camps. Some are debating whether supplements such as nuts or oatmeal belong. And let’s not forget the all-important crisp versus soft debate.
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Now a gorgeous new cookbook from one of the world’s best bakers devotes an entire section to these options. Dorie Greenspan has already written 13 books mainly devoted to sweets; she has won several James Beard awards and received the Order of Agricultural Merit from the French government for her outstanding culinary writings.
Cooking with Dorie: sweet, savory and simplee ($ 35; Mariner Books) includes approximately 150 recipes. There is a chapter devoted to large and small cakes and another to pies, pies and cobblers for all seasons.
Six of the recipes in the book are specifically aimed at chocolate chip cookies, including a maple bacon version of Mary Dodd and a “World Peace Cookies 2.0”, as well as the classic.
The caramel chocolate chip cookies aren’t technically in the dedicated section, but Greenspan thinks they deserve a place there. Because they contain chunks of chocolate and nuts, “that means they could rightly be called chocolate chip cookies, although perhaps those who lived briefly in France,” she writes.
In fact, Greenspan places these treats in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Hall of Fame. On the one hand, they satisfy almost all categories: the treats, shaped like a mini pie, have the crisp edges of a buttery and crumbly shortbread as well as a tender texture in the center, with pieces of melted chocolate. “Like so many of my favorite recipes, it’s a surprise,” Greenspan said in a phone interview. She notes that despite the cookie’s name, there is no caramel in the recipe.
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She gets that cookie synergy by baking the dough in muffin tins, which means it can be crispy against the sides of the hot pan. “The butter and sugar almost caramelize, you get bonus flavors. Ordinary ingredients made extraordinary, ”she says. Her recipe includes nuts, but these are optional – chocolate fans can add more chunks to the mixture instead.
Greenspan notes that while chocolate chip cookies are by no means seasonal, they are well suited for this time of year. On the one hand, their caramel-flavored echoes fall. On the other hand, they are slice and bake cookies. As people begin to welcome others into their homes and the entertainment season arrives, it helps to have logs of cookie dough ready in a freezer. “Home cooking was a necessity during the pandemic,” says Greenspan. But the audience was limited. “Now is a fun time for bakers. We cook to share. And we have more people to share with.
The following recipe is adapted from Cooking with Dorie: sweet, savory and simple by Dorie Greenspan. Tester’s Note: You might be tempted to use a baking sheet, but hopefully you won’t, the texture is really better in muffin tins.
Biscuits with chocolate and caramel pieces
Makes 24 cookies
2 sticks (8 oz.) Unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
Half a cup of sugar
Half a cup of icing sugar
Half a teaspoon of fine sea salt
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
Large chunks of half a cup of dark or milk chocolate or large chips
About half a cup of coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted or not, or more pieces of chocolate
In a large bowl, beat butter, both sugars and salt together on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat the vanilla. Add the flour all at once. Beat a few times, until the risk of flying the flour has passed, then beat on low speed until the flour is almost completely incorporated. Don’t beat too much, you want the mixture to be more lumpy than smooth. Add the chocolate and nuts and incorporate using a flexible spatula.
Knead the dough if necessary so that it comes together. Divide it in half and shape each piece into a 6 inch long log; they will be barely 2 inches in diameter. Wrap each log in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. (Logs can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 2 months.)
Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a muffin pan, two if you have them. Score a log at ½ inch intervals, then slice it into slices with a chef’s knife, cutting sharply through the chips. Place each puck in a muffin pan. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until cookies are golden around the edges and slightly soft in the center. Let the cookies stand for 3 minutes, then gently remove each one with the tip of a table knife and let cool on a wire rack. Let the pan cool, then repeat with the remaining log. Serve cookies warm or at room temperature.
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