The New York Times chocolate chip cookie recipe has gained a cult following for good reason. With perfectly crispy edges and a gooey center that stays soft for days, these cookies are everything you want in a classic chocolate chip cookie, only better.
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Cookies are one of my favorite things to bake because they are an almost instant satisfaction of a sweet tooth. I love sampling the dough as I make it; love a fresh hot cookie right out of the oven; and I really enjoy them the next day when they’ve been in a Ziploc overnight and they are less crispy, and more chewy and tender.
These big cookies are made with a combination of cake flour and bread flour, fancy bittersweet chocolate, sprinkled with sea salt and, most importantly, left to chill in the refrigerator for 24 to 36 hours.
They puff up more during cooking then a typical chocolate chip cookie, but then flatten to a normal chocolate chip cookie shape. I thought they were less greasy than the usual chocolate chip cookie, which was nice! Sadly, I couldn’t find any fancy chocolate disks for my cookies, even though I drove to Whole Foods as suggested, so maybe I didn’t get the whole NY Chocolate Chip Cookie experience!
Jump to:
- Why You’ll Love These New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Recipe Ingredients
- Popular Substitutions and Variations
- How To Make NY Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Recipe FAQs
- Expert Tips
- How To Store New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
- What to Serve NY Chocolate Chip Cookies With
- More Cookie Recipes to Consider
- New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Why You’ll Love These New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Worth the Wait: The 24-hour resting period allows the flavors to develop and results in a richer, more complex-tasting cookie that’ll make you forget about any other recipe.
- Perfect Texture: The combination of cake and bread flours creates a cookie with crispy edges and a chewy center that stays soft for days.
- Customizable Recipe: Adaptable to personal preferences, like adding nuts or using different chocolate types. You can make it uniquely yours while still enjoying the classic base.
- Conversation Starter: These aren’t just cookies — they’re the ones everyone’s been talking about, and now you can casually mention that you make the famous NYT version!
🍪 If you haven’t treated your family to Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies yet, you’re seriously missing out — those warm, gooey bites make any day sweeter!
Recipe Ingredients
- Cake flour
- Bread flour
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Unsalted butter
- Sugar — light brown and granulated
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Bittersweet chocolate disks — also called fèves. I had to use bittersweet chocolate chips. If you can’t find disks, look for bittersweet bars of chocolate with at least 60% cacao content and chop them into bigger-than-chip-sized pieces.
- Sea salt
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Popular Substitutions and Variations
- Substitute all-purpose flour for both cake and bread flour in a pinch – while the texture won’t be exactly the same, you’ll still get delicious results that work when you’re short on specialty ingredients.
- Switch up the chocolate discs with a mix of dark and milk chocolate chunks, or use high-quality chocolate bars chopped into irregular pieces for pools of melted chocolate throughout your cookies.
- Fold in toffee bits or crushed pretzels along with the chocolate for an addictive sweet-salty combination that adds extra crunch and dimension.
How To Make NY Chocolate Chip Cookies
Step 1: Whisk dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Step 2: Beat butter and sugars for 5 minutes until very light, then add eggs one at a time and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients at low speed until just combined, then fold in chocolate pieces. Chill dough 24-36 hours.
Step 3: When ready, preheat oven to 350°F. Scoop 3½-ounce dough balls onto lined baking sheet, sprinkle with sea salt, and bake 18-20 minutes until golden but still soft.
Step 4: Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack. Remaining dough stays good in fridge for up to 72 hours.
Recipe FAQs
Yes – cake and bread flour aren’t just fancy substitutes. The combination creates a distinct chewiness and structure that’s key to the cookie’s iconic texture. The higher protein content in bread flour gives you those crispy edges, while cake flour keeps the centers tender.
The large size (3.5 oz) is intentional – it creates distinct texture zones: crispy edges, chewy middles, and gooey centers. Making them smaller will give you a totally different cookie that won’t match the original’s appeal.
The rest isn’t just about convenience – it allows the flour to hydrate fully and the flavors to develop. Think of it like marinating meat. Skip this step and you’ll miss out on the deep toffee notes and complex flavor that make these cookies special.
Expert Tips
- Check For Doneness: Don’t rely solely on the timer. Pull the cookies when the edges are lightly golden but the centers still look slightly underbaked. They’ll continue cooking on the hot baking sheet.
- Creaming Step: During the creaming step, frequently scrape down the sides of your bowl. Those 5 minutes of creaming butter and sugar are crucial. They create the tiny air pockets that give your cookies structure.
- Uniform Size: Use a kitchen scale to measure your 3.5-ounce portions. Too much variation in cookie size will result in some burning while others remain underbaked.
- Disks vs Chips: Using chocolate disks instead of chips isn’t just fancy – the disks melt differently, creating those signature layers of chocolate throughout the cookie.
How To Store New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies stay remarkably fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, though they rarely last that long. For best results, place them in layers separated by wax paper, and add a slice of bread to maintain moisture.
The unbaked dough balls freeze beautifully for up to 3 months – just wrap them individually and store in a freezer bag for cookies on demand.
What to Serve NY Chocolate Chip Cookies With
While these cookies are perfect on their own, they reach new heights when served slightly warm with a cold glass of whole milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an ice cream sandwich.
For dinner parties, try them as part of a dessert board alongside fresh berries and whipped cream, or crumble them over affogato for an indulgent coffee dessert.
More Cookie Recipes to Consider
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New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
- 1 ⅔ cups bread flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (2 ½ sticks)
- 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves (at least 60 percent cacao content)
- Sea salt, for garnish
Instructions
- Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
- Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
- Scoop six 3.5-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie.
- Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more.
- Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.
Notes
- Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods. You can also find these online.
- Using a mix of both dark and light brown sugar creates a more complex caramel flavor that sets these cookies apart.
- Room temperature eggs but cool butter creates the perfect emulsion for optimal cookie texture.
- The recipe’s 3.5-ounce portion isn’t random – it’s specifically designed to achieve the right ratio of crispy exterior to gooey interior.
Lynn
Cake flour and bread flour, hmmm? Sounds interesting, Barbara! I will have to give these a try next time I'm baking choc. chip cookies.
lynn
Well Barbara, three years later and I finally made these 🙂 They were tasty. When I made them the humungous size like the recipe advised, they stayed puffy. But when I downsized to a regular-sized cookie, mine flattened out like you said yours did. I didn’t have the chocolate disks, so just cut into chunks some bittersweet chocolate bars I had. Anyway . . . fun to try a new recipe, espec. with the two kinds of flour. I think I’m convinced to stick with my tried and true modified Toll House cookies, though.
Barbara Schieving
So fun that you’re experimenting with chocolate chips cookies. It’s tough work, but someone has to do it. It’s hard to beat a good Toll House Cookie. Thanks for letting me know you tried them.
Melanie
The cookies are beautiful! I've been intrigued by these after seeing them all over the blogworld. I like the fact that you mentioned they are a bit less greasy than others!
Jamie
These do look really good. I haven't heard about these cookies but now I want to make them. How much did you like them? Would you consider them a favorite now? Your 3 most recent posts have me wanting to bake something 🙂 Thanks for all the inspiration.
Sophie
Waw,…Barbara!! These chocolate chip cookies look so tasty & awesome too!
MMMMMMMMMM,…all the way!
Cristie
I've wondered about these cookies before, so glad to have an excellant baker give them a thumbs up.
Bunnee
Welcome home! I made these cookies and sent them off to the son in Boston. They were pretty good but I'm not sure I think letting the dough sit overnight makes all that much difference. Yours are so uniform and symmetrical – mine were a little more random.
msmeanie
The cookies look delicious! I love my CCC the next day too, when they are soft and chewy. YUM. I am so craving these now…
teresa
chocolate chip cookies are one of my very favorite treats. these look marvelous!
Supriya Nair
Very delectably looking cookies there…luv to try them…
Sue Sparks
Your NY Times cc cookies look/sound so good, that I am going to have to add them to my "to bake" list! I even have sea alt on hand:) I love baking cookies too, for all the reasons you listed!
Happy Easter!
Cookin' Canuck
I keep seeing these pop up around the web and am dying to try them.
Tina
Beautiful clicks and cookies…
Kim
I noticed that Alton Brown has a recipe for cc cookies with bread flour the other day. I have to admit that I really want to test out the bread flour. Sounds like it would make a very chewy cookie. They look great.
Heavenly Housewife
I need to try making these one day. They certainly look great. I like the idea of the sea salt in them.
Gosh, i'm hungry now.
*kisses* HH
Julia @Mélanger
Mr Mélanger ADORES chocolate chip cookies. I so far have found a good recipe that he likes (a Martha Stewart one), but I am always on the hunt for something better. Question – are these deliciously chewy?
Katrina
My go-to recipe, but I almost never chill the dough that long and I don't sprinkle the sea salt, but something about the cake/bread flour makes these fabulous for me. And I have found Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips, a little flatter than regular chips, are a perfect "cheaper" option.
Jenny
I tried these with two other kinds a year or so back, and what I wonder is what would happen if I took my favorite chocolate chip dough (the original tollhouse recipe, slightly modified) and chilled IT for 24 hours first. That might be the best of all worlds.
Mags
I'm a chocolate chip cookie freak and it doesn't take much to satisfy my chocolate chip cookie craving, but the baker in me loves to try new recipes so of course I'm adding this recipe to my list.
Mimi
You just can't beat a chocolate chip cookie.
Mimi