Ina Garten-Inspired Chocolate Chip Cookies

Compiled by Igor Kukolj, Editor. Nobody here has cooked this — how these are made.

Chilling the dough is usually presented as a way to stop the cookies spreading. That is the least interesting thing it does.

Left for twenty-four to seventy-two hours, the dough changes. The flour absorbs the liquid fully, so the dough is drier and holds its shape. Enzymes break some of the starch into simpler sugars, which then caramelise more readily in the oven. The egg and butter distribute evenly through the whole mass. The result is a noticeably deeper, more toffee-like flavour and a better texture — from exactly the same ingredients.

Thirty minutes in the fridge helps with spread. A day changes what the cookie tastes like.

Brown the butter, and let it cool

Melted butter cooked until the milk solids toast turns nutty and adds a caramel note nothing else in the recipe supplies. It also loses some water, which makes a chewier cookie. Let it cool to room temperature and firm slightly before creaming, or it will melt the sugar into a greasy soup.

Use chopped chocolate, not chips

Chips are formulated with less cocoa butter so they hold their shape — that is what they are for. A bar chopped with a knife gives you shards, dust and slabs, which melt into seams and pools running through the cookie. The dust also colours the dough around it.

Take them out looking underbaked

They carry on cooking on a hot tray for several minutes. Pulled when the middle still looks soft and slightly wet, they set to a chewy centre with crisp edges. Baked until the centre looks done in the oven, they are dry by the time they cool.

Storing

Four days in an airtight tin with a slice of bread, which keeps them soft. The raw dough keeps five days in the fridge and freezes for three months as scooped balls — bake from frozen with two extra minutes.