Several years back, I discovered David Leite's chocolate chip cookie recipe and adopted it as my go-to. But as I came across more "best" chocolate chip cookie recipes, I couldn't help but wonder if others had a competitive edge. Always seeking consistency and perfection, I thought a baking project to nail down techniques and tailor a recipe to my preferences was in order.
This project began in my studio kitchen in Boston and was largely successful because I had (volunteered?) friends and the nutrition staff at Tufts Medical Center to help eat through batches upon batches of cookies. The first part of this project was baking through 3 popular recipes: David Leite's, Tara O'Brady's, and Claire Saffitz's. I analyzed the recipes to see how they differed, cherry-picking the ingredient ratios and techniques I liked. What I pulled out helped build a recipe skeleton. The second part, recipe development, was a science experiment with 4 rounds of trial and error through which I refined my recipe skeleton to be what it is today.
Shortly after finalizing this recipe, I made Mokonuts' Rye-Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies for my ESL students. Though it wasn't what I would want in my classic chocolate chip cookie, it was good... Really good... So good, that a blip of panic ensued for a few seconds as I questioned whether my recipe was "ready."
Dorie Greenspan, whose baking, story, style, and cheer inspire me in all areas of life, has published 28 different chocolate chip cookie recipes across her 14 cookbooks. She's constantly playing around and completely okay with it. In an interview with Food52, she said, “I can't stop tinkering with it. I love the form of it. I love the idea of it.” With Dorie's wise words, I've decided to embrace lifelong experimentation; the process is as enjoyable as the cookies themselves, but for now, I'm very content with this recipe and I hope you'll try it yourself.
If you'd like a glimpse into my year-long project (with lots of cookie photos!), here's a pdf version of my baking "lab notebook."
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