jacques torres chocolate chip cookies

When I have photos, foodporn worthy photos, I often wonder if anyone will read the accompanying article (besides the recipe of course).
I know I'm guilty of doing just that--I drool over the photos, and hastily scan down to the recipe to see if I have the ingredients on hand.
So to spare you tons of chit chat, let me just get right to it: these are hands down the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made.
Jacques Torres knows chocolate chip cookies.  He's also called Mr. Chocolate too!
AND, this recipe is completely fool-proof.
You cannot mess this recipe up.
These cookies lasted 4 hours? I called the next person on the list of "baked goods to receive", they were here in half an hour!

The recipe also states to cover the dough well and refrigerate for 36-72 hours.
I wanted to see if it would make it to 96 hours and it did--perfectly!


Cover well, really well with plastic wrap.

The dough is hard to scoop out, so use a sharp knife to cut into sections.

At this point I can call it a day.




I now know what all the fuss was about from the New York Times.
I totally get it now--the best chocolate chip cookies ever!  You'll see.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Jacques Torres

print recipe

2 cups minus 2 TB (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 ts baking soda

1 1/2 ts baking powder

1 1/2 ts 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 TB (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 ts natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks at least 60 percent cacao content

Sea salt.

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds.

Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them.

Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.

Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie.

Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes.

Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more.

Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Note: Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods.

granola thins

Those granola thins by Nature Valley are an excellent idea: thin crispy granola; granola you won't break your teeth eating, all dipped in chocolate or peanut butter.
I've had this on my "recipe clone" create list to make for some time.
Granted these don't look exactly like the granola thins, I'm sure they have precise machines to cut them into little perfect squares.
But with mine you can rest assure there are far less chemicals and far better tasting chocolate.
If you make these, keep in mind the thinner you spread the oat mixture out on the baking sheet the thinner the bars will be.  I made mine somewhere in the middle: not too thin, not too thick.
And thinner means more crunch, thicker means chewier.
I need to work on making a batch with peanut coating.

I must warn you that these are highly addictive.
And you simply must try them with the little bit of heat.
It's a gentle heat...I promise.

Toast the oats! Important step for sure.


Secret ingredient: those coconut chips from Trader Joe's, my goodness those are good.
If you can't find those, then use toasted coconut flakes--just make sure they are toasted a bit to ensure a nice crunch.

Remember spread thin for crispy bars, thicker for chewy.

Do the chocolate coating thin too.  I made mine too thick, but I guess that's a good thing too.


granola thins (with a touch of heat)

print recipe

4 cups rolled oats (not quick oats, not quick cooking, not instant)

1/8 cup canola oil

4 TB butter, melted

½ ts sea salt

¼ ts (or more) of cayenne

½ cup light brown sugar

¼ cup + 2 TB honey

¼ cup pineapple juice (an oversized ¼ cup)

¼ cups molasses

1 ½ ts pure vanilla extract

1 cup of crushed graham crackers, fairly fine crush

1 cup rice krispies

3/4 cup sweet & spicy pecans from Trader Joe’s, rough chop (you want chunks)

1 cup of Trader Joe’s Coconut Chips, crushed

cook notes: for thin and crunchy-like granola thins spread the oat mixture thin on baking sheet.  If you want chewy granola bars, then spread it thick-like.

If you can’t find Trader Joe’s coconut chips use some toasted coconut flakes. Light golden brown toasted coconut. And you can use any spicy pecans you want really. 

for chocolate coating:

11-12 ounce bag of milk chocolate chips, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, toss the oats with the canola oil, melted butter and salt.

Spread the mixture out onto a baking sheet, in a nice thin layer.  Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until oats turn light golden brown.

You should turn and mix oats around during the baking.

Remove from the oven and set aside.

To make the mixture for the bars:

In a medium saucepan, over low heat, mix the brown sugar, honey, pineapple juice, vanilla extract and molasses. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring until all combined. Don’t let it come to a boil—just want to dissolve everything.

Take the toasted oats, place them in a large bowl, add in the crushed grahams, rice krispies, pecans and the coconut chips.  Mix all.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Toss the toasted oat mixture with the sugar mixture, stirring as you pour.

Toss to combine.

Take a baking sheet (large), grease up with nonstick spray even the edges, and place down parchment paper.  If you don’t have parchment paper then use non stick spray on foil. 

Press mixture onto baking sheet . 

For thin crispy granola try and spread the granola as thin as possible on the sheet.  It’s hard, but just keep at it.

For chewy granola, keep the mixture thicker.

Bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.

It will take about 2- 3 hours for this to harden up.

Once it’s harden, then pour on the melted chocolate, in a nice thin layer.  I did not go all the way to the edges.

Let the chocolate harden and set up. 

Being careful cut pieces with a very sharp knife and remove from the pan.

Makes about 30  2-inch bars +/-

cookies and cream cookies (plus blizzard 2013)

I'm back!
And I can say I survived the blizzard of 2013!
As most of you know, cape cod got hit pretty bad with the blizzard, or was it called storm nemo?
My area got hit hard.
Thankfully we survived it ok with minimal tree damage and house damage, but we lost power for three days.
For three days in 30 degree temperatures during the day and teen temperatures during the night.
You can only imagine how hard that was, mentally and physically.
I can honestly say it was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.
By day two our inside home temperature was 43 degrees!
Hubby and I would lay in bed at night with 7-8 blankets, fully clothed, listening to the house creak and moan with the declining temps.
We could see our breath inside our home.
We didn't have a fireplace, but we did boil water over the gas stove every three hours.
Granted this is not safe and I don't recommend it to anyone, but we have high ceilings and only did this a few times to raise the temperature up a bit.
On day two and a half with no heat, we looked everywhere for a hotel room--they were snatched up fairly quickly and the waiting list was about three pages long.
The only communication we had was the radio and our iphones with which I got updates via the NStar website that said we had another three days to go until power was completely restored.
You can imagine the freak out factor I had with this news.
I wasn't so worried about us making it in the cold, my biggest fear was our pipes.
It was only a matter of time before the pipes would freeze.  We did wrap a few pipes that were closest to the outside walls with clothes and towels, and blocked up the doors and windows with sofa cushions.
During the day we'd go to a local grocery store that was partially open, running on generators and eat whatever they had and use the restrooms to wash up.  It was hard to come home to the house at night knowing it would be dark and cold.
There were two homes on our street that had whole-house generators, driving by these homes every night seeing them inside watching TV, using the computer, or cooking away in the kitchen was surreal--strange to say the least.  It leaves you desperate in a way; longing for any kind of normalcy---again.
On our third day of no power we decided I would go the next day and stay with friends.
My husband was not leaving the house--under any circumstances.  I didn't like this, and had zero say in the matter, but he did have a lot of army training so he was quite familiar with handling extreme conditions and weather.
You know how there are certain moment-like life events that happen to you that you never ever forget?
The time the power came on was in my top five.
We were just coming home for the night, driving down our road, seeing some lights on in houses that we were confused on whether or not those were the ones with the generators--we weren't sure because it all looked different.
Then we drove onto our street, and noticed the entire street was lit up like a christmas tree!  When you're used to seeing black and then you see everything illuminated it's quite a change.
I remember screaming the whole way down our street to our house, saying 'oh my god, oh my god....!"
And then we got to our house and it was all black!
I didn't know hubby had turned all the lights off so that when the power did come back on we won't blow a fuse--he forgot this too!
So we both weren't sure if the power was on.  Then I remembered that above the garage door is a motion detector light that glows red laser light when there is movement in the driveway which in turn turns on the outside lights.  And POOF, the little red laser light started moving as I drove closer to the garage door and the lights on the garage door clicked on!!
I screamed "yes, the power is on!"
I screamed again, opened my truck door and started to get out, forgot to put the truck in park, caught myself and put it in park, got out and ran towards to the gas meter to hear for the sound of hissing to validate my curiosity again of whether the power was truly on.  It was-- It was hissing away!
We both ran inside and were almost crying with happiness.
Hubby remembered the vent to the heater was blocked with a 4-5 foot snow drift, he ran around to shovel it out, while I ran around the house in shear happiness, turning on this or that light, and checking the all the heat panels.  Finding my cat sitting on one of the floorboard heat panels--how he managed that balance act I'm still not sure, but porr thing he was cold too.
That night taking a hot shower-- well there are no words really for that; how do you describe that?
I mean it had been three days without hot water; your body just does a collective 'sigh' when the hot water hits your back for the first time.
We did lose power again the next day for six hours--what's six hours though when you've been through three days?  Nothing.
As of today, thursday, my town still has about less than 100 homes still without power.
These are the places that are farther out from the main grid; homes that lost a lot of power lines and have older power lines/systems.
But thankfully today, thursday was the day that everyone in my town would be restored according to NStar. Happy Valentines Day indeed.
I haven't been cooking or baking for a while, cleanup is first, but I did find a recipe from the archives that I hadn't posted yet.
Happy Valentine's Day!
I know I'm happy--very happy and VERY grateful.


The taste of cookies and cream literally in a cookie.  Seriously these are good.
Any type of Oreo will work and flavor-wise you can mix and match too.

Eating the dough is just as tasty too, plus there are no eggs so it's fairly safe.

cookies & cream cookies

print recipe

2 cups + 2 TB flour

1/2 ts baking soda

1/2 ts (oversized) salt

12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled

8 oz. cream cheese softened

1 cup light brown sugar, NOT packed

1/2 cup sugar

1 ts vanilla extract

2 cups crushed Oreo’s (not fine crush but not big chunk either)

Cook notes: I made my cookies larger than normal, about golfball size.

So make them whatever size you like.  If you make them smaller you should reduce baking times.

Whisk all dry ingredients together; set aside.

With stand mixer, or by hand mix butter and cream cheese together until smooth.

Add in both sugars and beat until thoroughly combined.

Beat in vanilla extract until combined.

Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined.

By hand, add in the crushed Oreo’s.

Cover dough securely with plastic wrap and chill two hours or overnight. 

When ready to bake cookies preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes or until edges are set and bottoms are light brown. Do NOT overbake!

Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking and place on wire rack to cool.

Should make about 30-32 cookies.

ginger crunch bars

Whenever I see a recipe that calls for using pure coconut or pure ginger in it's all natural form I'm in.
I love baking with ginger, love eating it when I get sushi and love using it at home in stir fry dishes.
And ever since I finally invested in a good ginger peeler, it's been a lot easier to slice and dice it up.
Sure I used to be lazy about using fresh ginger because it was a pain to peel, but if you get a small peeler or even one that's made for ginger you'll see how much more you use fresh ginger.
And it's still one of those produce items that hasn't gone way up in price, and has a pretty good shelf life in the fridge.
When David Lebovitz made these he warned us of how addicting they were.
He wasn't kidding--these are seriously good.
Just the right amount of ginger to butter to icing ratio.
Tastes like a shortbread with a fresh, clean burst of ginger and a nice gentle caramel undertone--heavenly I tell you.
Be warned!
I followed the recipe exactly, but added in some salt and also topped them off with toasted
ginger on top.
I highly suggest adding on the toasted ginger on top,  if not for the smells the toasting ginger leaves in the house.

ginger crunch bars

From davidlebovitz.com 

print recipe

cook notes:

I used an 8-inch tart pan with removable bottom.  You could use another size tart pan with removable bottom.

cookie base

9 TB unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

1 ts baking powder

1 1/2 ts ground dried ginger (I used 2 TB)

(I added a giant pinch of sea salt)

icing

5 TB unsalted butter

2 TB golden syrup

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 TB ground dried ginger (I used 1 & ½ TB)

Toasted ginger for decoration, optional but wonderful

(I toasted about 1/8 - ¼ cup of sliced/grated fresh ginger on parchment paper in the oven (350 degrees) for about 5-10 minutes until “just” golden brown).

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Butter and/or spray up a 8 or 13-inch rectangular tart pan.

You can use a stand mixer—I mixed by hand.  

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger.

Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture until well combined. Turn the dough out onto the pan and spread it out, making sure to get into all the corners.  It’s not a sticky dough, so this part should be relatively easy.

Bake the dough for 18-20 minutes, until it’s light golden brown or if you want really crunchy then golden brown --  I did somewhere in between.

When the dough is almost done baking, make the icing by heating the butter and golden syrup over low heat in a small pan; add in the powdered sugar and ginger.  Keep stirring until it’s all smooth. Take off heat.

Once the cookie dough is done baking pour the icing over the top (I used about 3/4 of it).  When smoothing out the icing try not to let it get into the edges.  You want the edges to be seen as it gives a nice decorative appeal when it’s all cooled.

Decorate with the toasted ginger, optional.

Let this sit for at least 30 minutes to let the icing harden up/set up. 

If your kitchen is hot, then pop in the fridge.

Use a sharp knife to slice into bars or squares.

gluten free salty peanut butter cookies

Ever since Trader Joe's stopped carrying the peanut flour I've been on the look out for more peanut flour.
Luckily at whole foods one day I came across this jar of what I thought was peanut butter, but made me look twice because the insides looked different.
Upon closer inspection I noticed that it was powdered peanut butter.
Instantly I thought this had to work as peanut flour.  Nice dry powder with deep peanut flavor?
Has to work.
And thankfully only one recipe later -- it does work perfectly in a gluten free peanut butter cookie.
This powder is a lot sweeter than a normal peanut flour is so you don't have to use as much sugar.
When I first tweeted this product a lot of people asked how does it taste as a peanut butter?
I still have no idea as I'm just using it for baking--so far.
These cookies tastes just like a normal peanut butter cookie recipe with a deeper peanut flavor.
I only made a half batch, about 12-15 cookies.
Also what I LOVE about this recipe is that it's a snap to throw together; no waiting for butter to come to room temp AND it's a one bowl wonder.

Why add the salty?
Since the cookies are sweet AND they are peanut butter--it just begs for a nice smudge of sea salt
on the top.  (you can omit this of course, but it does taste really good).


Literally one-bowl baking.  Love that.

gluten free salty peanut butter cookies 

print recipe

1 ¼ cup all-natural chunky or all natural smooth peanut butter (not too oily)

¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg, room temp

1 ts baking soda

3  OVERSIZED TB powdered peanut butter

1 ts sea salt

plus extra sea salt for the tops of the cookie dough balls, optional but wonderful

Cook notes:

This recipe makes a small batch (about 12-15), if you want more, just double all the ingredients. The cookies have to sit in fridge for at least an hour to come together; don’t let them sit in fridge overnight as they become very dry.  They are delicate and tend to break apart if you make them big. So try not to make the dough balls bigger than a tablespoon size.

You can add chocolate chips to these.

In a small bowl add the peanut powder, baking soda, and salt and mix, set aside.

In a small bowl crack egg open and beat.

In a mixer or by hand, combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.

Add egg to the cookie mixture, mix well.

Add in the dry mixture, by sprinkling it over the cookie dough, not just depositing it in one large dump. Mix till just combined.

Cover bowl and let it sit in fridge for about an hour.

Do not let this sit overnight as the dough becomes dry!

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll into tablespoon (or smaller) sized balls and place on non-stick cookie sheets or greased cookie sheets. Do not press flat, just leave as balls. Sprinkle just a touch of sea salt on the tops of the cookie balls. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. These cook up very fast, so I really wouldn’t go past the 10-14 minute mark.

Cool on a baking sheet for a while as the cookies are very delicate and hard to move.

The cookies are fragile and tend to break, if you make them too big.

Should make about 12-15 cookies (small batch).

If you want more, just double all the ingredients.