Perfecting Perfection

Yesterday, the New York Times ran this article about how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Here's the gist:

1. Refrigerate the dough for up to 36 hours before baking. Chilling the dough for this long allows the flour to soak up all the liquids and allows the flavors to mingle and mature.
2. Serve the cookies warm...because lots and lots of people like their cookies this way.
3. Sprinkle some sea salt (that's fleur de sel for all you fancy-schmancy folks) on the dough balls before baking. The salt "adds dimension that can lift even a plebian cookie."

What the article doesn't mention, though, is that oatmeal is the real key to the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Yes, as the Oatmeal Cookie Guy, I have a pretty obvious pro-oatmeal bias. But I truly believe that regular chocolate chip cookies, with their glutenous, tongue-coating texture, just aren't as good as oatmeal-based cookies. Try my Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, which have a 3-1 oatmeal-to-flour ratio, and see for yourself. And while your at it, try gilding the lily by making ice cream sandwiches out of them.

I'll have to try chilling the dough for a while before baking, but I doubt I could go that long without eating it all by myself.

When it comes to eating the cookies warm, I'm in the minority and prefer my cookies cooled. Call me crazy, but I think warm cookies taste way too sweet. (Kind of like how warm soda tastes sweeter than cold soda.) What do you think? Cast your vote in my Hot or Not? poll.

I have to agree about the sea salt. Try my Chocolate & Salted Caramel cookies to taste how salty and sweet go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

Comments

[Lorraine]

I saw the article too and of course thought of you. The idea of refrigerating the dough might be an interesting experiment but you'd have to change your baking routine. What do you think of the chocolate they suggested in the NYT recipe?
I'm with you on the cooled cookie preference!

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Lorraine. I agree...refrigerating the dough is something worth trying, but how many people bake that way in their own homes? When I make cookie dough, I want to eat cookies NOW, not tomorrow or the day after that. I just added a new post on the chocolate.