Chocolate Chip Cookies—Classic and Quick!

You just can’t come between a kid and their goûter! When Marjorie and I visited Zeva the other afternoon to shoot her MANNA Mamma profile, we arrived right on goûter time. Not to worry. Zeva busted out the cookie dough she had prepared that morning and together she and Zachary rolled cookies and threw them in the oven. Speedy and simple. You can’t come between a boy and his goûter, it’s an inviolable French kids snack. But Marjorie and I ate more of those delicious cookies than her boy!!

What a genius idea of Zeva to prepare the dough that she can pull out and pop in the oven! Mega time saver and reminds me of the Tollhouse rolls of cookie dough in the cold aisle back home in the grocery store.

We decided to share the recipe for these classic chocolate chip cookies from fellow expat and Bob’s Juice Bar owner, Marc Grossman’s book New York Cult Recipes.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

For 45 mini cookies or 18 big ones
Prep time: 25 minutes, plus cooling
Refrigeration time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Wet Ingredients
1 cup sweet/unsalted butter, softened
⅔ cup super fine sugar
½ cup light brown sugar (or ⅓ cup superfine sugar + 1 teaspoon molasses)
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
2 pinches salt
2 eggs

Dry Ingredients
2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
7 oz chocolate, coarsely chopped into chunks (or 1 ⅔ cups chocolate chips for the mini ones)
⅓ cup chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts (or ⅓ cup extra pieces of chocolate)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt (optional)

The Dough
Beat the butter and sugars in a food processor or by hand until light and creamy. Add the other wet ingredients, beating constantly until smooth.

Combine the dry ingredients-if making mini cookies, substitute the coarsely chopped chocolate with chocolate chips and omit the nuts. Combine the two mixtures until a dough forms. Shape into a ball, cover loosely in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Shaping Into a Sausage (for the big ones)
Take the dough out of the refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap and place the dough on a sheet of parchment paper. With the help of the parchment paper, shape the dough into a smooth sausage shape about 4 inches in diameter. Wrap the dough in the sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Cooking
Preheat the oven to 204C (400F). Remove the dough sausage from the refrigerator and unwrap from the parchment paper. Using a knife or a pastry cutter, cut it into round slices about ⅝ inch thick, if making big cookies.

Arrange them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 10 minutes, then allow to cool for at least 10 minutes at room temperature before serving. If making mini cookies, roll heaped teaspoons of dough into balls and bake for 5-6 minutes. The cookies should still be slightly soft when they come out of the oven. Allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Notes
– Zeva made the mini ones during our session.
-You can find light brown sugar at Thanksgiving and molasses (mélasses) at all bio stores like Bio c’ Bon and Naturalia.

Reprinted with permission from Marc Grossman
Image by Marjorie Preval