Perfecting the Chocolate Chip Cookie

When I tell people that I am working on the perfect chocolate chip cookie, most of them laugh and say, "But chocolate chip cookies are foolproof!" This, my friends, is false. Not all chocolate chip cookies are created equal, and I have a suspicion that those who believe they are have not had a truly spectacular one. And how tragic would it be if a majority of cookie eaters had never tasted a perfect chocolate chip cookie? While it is true that they are rare - I can count the number of perfect cookies eaten on one hand - they are, in fact, within the reach of a mortal cook's culinary powers. In this post, I will not be giving you a recipe but rather some tips to aid you on your quest for the dessert divinity. Some of them are commonsensical, others a little more innovative, but all of them have in mind the acquisition of that elusive, melt-in-your-mouth, chocolatey decadence.

1. Use good chocolate. For a long time, I refused to splurge on good chocolate chips, but a good rule of thumb is to never bake with chocolate you wouldn't eat alone. I am particularly fond of Callebaut, which is not too pricy.
2. Rotate your cookie sheets halfway through baking.
3. For chewy cookies: when you transfer your cookies to the cooling rack, they should still be a little liquid, almost to the point where you can't lift them up from the sheet without them falling apart.
4. For exceptionally chewy cookies: In his class at Central Market, David Lebovitz mentioned that tapping the tops of cookies with a spatula halfway through baking makes for extra chewiness.
5. If you like nuts in your cookies, try toasted hazelnuts.
6. Most importantly: refrigerate your dough overnight. This allows the flavors to marry and increases chewiness. In Ready for Dessert, David Lebovitz recommends dividing the dough, rolling it into logs of 9 inches long, and wrapping them in saran wrap.

Also, I know it's trendy to put brown butter in everything these days, but I made a batch of cookies with and without brown butter and couldn't tell the difference. I think I might just save myself some time and stick with regular butter. But just look at that gooey goodness. It doesn't get much better than that.