NYT CCC

Since the title of this blog is Chocolate Chip Trips, I think it's only fitting to have a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. So, here it is.

This is the chocolate chip cookie recipe published in the New York Times last July (2008). I have been meaning to try it for the longest time, but something else always got in the way -- that something else being brownies, blondies, muffins, and the like.

The recipe is not particularly difficult to make (actually the BF made this batch, so that means it can't be hard, don't tell him I said that), but it does require some ingredients that I don't normally have off hand. Cake flour, bread flour, and chocolate disks.

Before I say more about these cookies, here's my disclaimer: the BF did not follow this recipe exactly. Unfortunately, we couldn't. Let me explain. The recipe asks you to use "a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment" to cream the butter and sugar. When I read this, I was mad! Why must a recipe just assume that you have a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment? How come recipes don't think of us poor (literally -- broke graduate student here) folks who haven't yet found the courage to spend $300 on a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment? Oh, don't get me wrong. I will love the day I have a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, but unfortunately, living on my university stipend won't get me there too soon. But no fretting -- that's what marriage is for, right? So your family and friends can buy you Kitchen Aid mixers and Le Creuset pots and all those other kitchen gadgets you've been drooling over for your whole broke graduate student life? I can't wait for that special day.

Anyway, we didn't have a KA, so we just used our standard hand held mixer to cream the butter and sugar. And we didn't have chocolate disks, so we used high quality bittersweet chocolate chips. And no, I'm not going to list a bunch of other changes I made and then complain about the recipe. Apart from the two I mentioned, we followed this recipe exactly. The verdict? Oh, they were definitely good, rich and flavorful, but still not the perfect cookie I was hoping for. They were a bit too crunchy for my taste.

I'm sorry NYT!! This has to be probably the ONLY semi-negative review of this recipe anywhere. I searched the internet to see if any other poor souls had the same fate as we did, but it seemed that it worked out perfectly for everyone else. I so envy all the KA owners.

Here is a link to the recipe, but I think I prefer this one.

If anyone else had a similar experience with this recipe, I would love to hear! Let's start a club and exclude all the cool kids (aka KA owners)! :P