ad hoc at home #9: chocolate chip cookies

In his cookbook, Mr. Keller hails chocolate chip cookies as his favorite cookie in the world. I don't recall seeing chocolate chip cookies at Bouchon Bakery, nor ever having them in any form at French Laundry or Bouchon, so I didn't know expect.

As far as I can tell, his cookies are not that much different from other recipes I've seen. The main difference is that he requires that you buy good bars of chocolate, in a combination of semi-sweet and bittersweet, and chop them into "chip-sized pieces," and not surprisingly given his sensitivity to aesthetics, shake in a fine-mesh basket strainer to "remove any chocolate 'dust' (small fragments)." The other variation is his relatively high brown (1 cup packed) to granulated (3/4 cup) sugar ratio.

These two factors create a flat, relatively chewy cookie, with chocolate striations. Maybe Keller is more precise in cutting his chocolate than I am, sifts out more of that chocolate dust than I did, and forms more perfect balls with his dough before baking, but I always imagined his cookies, especially his favorite cookie, to look better than this:

It isn't the prettiest cookie I've ever made, but it did the trick taste-wise. The cookies were a big hit at my summer party, so much so that my mom wants me to make some for her to bring back to LA to share with family!

I made them again a few weeks later for a friend's housewarming party, and had more success making it look as good as it tasted ... at least with a few specimens.