Would I Tell Everybody If It WASN'T True?

To me, the perfect chocolate chip cookie has a crisp, sturdy exterior covered in wrinkles and crevices. But the inside should be gooey, a molten chocolate mess- almost liquid when hot. The cookie itself should have a taste, buttery and salty, and not be completely overshadowed by the chocolate. They shouldn't be flat but not at all cake-like either. And finally, they should STAY DELICIOUS the next day. Maybe tender instead of crisp but not stale and bland. Which is inevitably what happens to my chocolate chip cookies. Oh, the many times I thought I'd finally achieved perfection only to be betrayed the next day by a box of pretty, tasteless cookies.

And really, I don't think my requirements for The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie are unreasonable. They certainly certainly seem achievable, like something that really ought to exist in the real world. But like a cute, mustard yellow, adult-sized corduroy jumper, these cookies seemed to exist only in my mind. WELL NO LONGER! 'Cause I did it, I made perfect ones. True, they're probably unnecessarily fussy and complicated (just like me) but DAMMIT THEY'RE GOOD! They're a combination of my favorite chocolate chip cookies from my former life when I thought perfection was unachievable:
- Libbie's mom posted a wonderful chocolate chip cookie recipe with pulverized oats which taste and look lovely but didn't stay fresh. (For me, 'cause I'm not innately perfect like the Henries- I HAVE TO WORK AT IT!)
-And Jacques Torres's which is French and complicated and perfectly suited for Friday nights when all I want to do is make something that takes hours and listen to glam rock. Plus they're good.
I liked both but neither was absolutely perfect. So I combined them, making the ingredients list longer than the Seine. (Pow! Geography comedy, coming at you!) Honestly, I don't think adding the oats was as important as the size of the cookies. I've always fought my instincts to make recklessly huge cookies but I think the largeness is what allows them to be crispy and crackly on top while still gooey inside. So here it is:

Super Fussy Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour or 4 T cornstarch and 2 c. All purpose flour *
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 cup pulverized oats
  
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• about 18 oz. chocolate - the bigger the chunks the better**
  
• pinch of cinnamon (my preference)
  

* in lieu of pastry flour which is what Jacques's recipe calls for. To make cake flour replace 2 T of all purpose flour with cornstarch per cup of all purpose flour.
** I think I used a 12 oz. bag semisweet chocolate chunks and about half a 12 oz. bag of milk chocolate chips. This was my idea of a perfect ratio but I like my cookies chocolatey.

To make:
Cream butter, then sugars, and cinnamon if you're using it. Beat until light yellow and fluffy. Then add eggs one at a time and then vanilla extract (I like to use 1/2 almond extract too). Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and mix on a low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate. Then chill for as long as possible. I did an hour- you're supposed to wait 36. Then make obscenely huge cookies. Jacques says golf ball sized. Mine weren't quite that big but they still worked. Bake at 350 F for about 12-20 minutes (you'll need to watch them since the time depends on the size). Rejoice! For a long time 'cause this makes a crapload. Probably about 60 4-5 inch cookies. I would have halved it except my girlish brain didn't want to do the math.