There's nothing quite as delightful as pulling out a perfectly-baked tray of cookies from the oven as its rich aroma fills the kitchen, or biting down into a still-warm cookie.
That said, I don't often bake cookies. Cookies are baked in batches, and I'm hampered by my stovetop oven that is half the size of regular ovens. I don't have the required patience to pull baking trays in and out every 15 minutes all day.
When I had the chance to visit my sister and use her full-sized oven, these huge chocolate chip cookies, the winner of King Arthur's Recipe of the Year in 2023, was the first recipe on my list. These cookies are good. Like, crazy good, and the best cookie that I've had. They're huge and soft, and tasted like how I remembered my childhood Subway cookies to be like. I was having Anton Ego-esque flashbacks.
These pictures don't quite capture the cookies' hugeness. This (below) is a half-size sheet pan is 18"x13", which fits about 5 cookies. My regular home oven fits quarter-size sheet pans (9"x13"), which probably means I would be baking 2 cookies each time, if I try. (Spoiler alert: I won’t).
At the end of the trip, it was hard for me to leave her house, partially because I know I won't be having any more of these beauties, not until at least after I upgrade my oven. But when I do, this King Arthur recipe remains at the top of my list.
I usually adapt recipes to include clarifications or to streamline some steps, and post my revised recipes here. But for this recipe, I decided I’ll just link to the original recipe on the King Arthur website. For sure, this recipe has many steps, far more than other cookie recipes. Some of the steps can be convoluted. (Yes, I would rest the dough for the full 72-hour. I baked two batches: one at the 24-hour mark, and one at the full 72-hour. The latter was lovelier, with a nuttier, almost-caramelised accent.) But each step was written in a clear manner, and I wouldn't dare to mess with any of the instructions in case the quality suffers.
For on that sunny winter morning, what came out of the oven was pure perfection.
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