New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies -- The Week the Basics Held

Daylight saving math. The kids' bedtime is broken for two weeks. Ryan was on duty at Miramar. Standard week.

Caleb, 8, wants to be a firefighter still. Has not deviated. Hazel, 4, chaos incarnate. Put a peanut butter sandwich in the DVD player Wednesday. Showed zero remorse.

Chicken and rice. The military spouse standard. One pan. Twenty-minute cleanup.

Mom called Sunday. We talked while she was putting up tomatoes from the garden. She is sixty-something and gardening like she is forty. Megan called from D.C.. We talked twenty minutes. The relationship is better now than it was.

Ryan came home from work. Dinner was on the stove. The basics held.

I sat at the kitchen table Tuesday night writing in the journal. Volume 11 now. The handwriting has not gotten neater. The journals are a record of the life I am living, in the moment, in tiny script that I will look back on someday and not be able to read. That is okay. The writing was the thing.

The PCS rumors are starting again. The official orders will come in a few months. We could move. We could stay. The waiting is the worst part. Three years here and I have learned to not put down deep roots in any military town. Nineteen-year-old me would not have believed how good I have gotten at packing.

The military spouses' Facebook group had a small drama this week. Two women fighting over the playgroup schedule. I muted notifications and cooked dinner. Some weeks the group is the lifeline. Some weeks it is the source of unnecessary stress. The skill is knowing which week you're in.

I went for a walk Sunday morning before the kids got up. Half an hour. The fog was burning off. I needed it. Some weeks I get the walk in. Some weeks I don't. The week tells me which.

Ryan's friends came over Friday for a beer. I made wings and chips. They demolished both. Standard Marine appetite — they eat like they are still on rations. The kitchen looked like a battlefield by the end. They cleaned up. Marines clean up. Donna would have been impressed.

I read the blog comments at the kitchen table with my coffee. A young spouse in Lejeune emailed me about deployment cooking. I wrote her back at length. I told her about the freezer. I told her about Donna. I told her she would survive. I sent her three of Donna's recipes.

Base housing is base housing. Beige walls, beige carpet, beige expectations. The dryer venting is in a stupid place. The kitchen has no dishwasher. We make it work.

Donna sent a recipe card in the mail this week. She has been doing this for years. The recipes go in the binder. The binder is full. The newest one is for a green bean casserole that uses fresh green beans and fried shallots and which I will absolutely make for the next holiday.

The kitchen counter has a chip in it from someone before us. Some military housing thing. I have stopped asking what. The chip is fine. The whole kitchen is provisional. We are renting from Uncle Sam.

Dad called. He has been gardening. He is sending zucchini updates again. The PTSD is managed. He talks more than he used to. He is becoming his own version of healed, which I did not think was possible at fourteen.

I made a casserole for a neighbor whose husband is deployed. I dropped it off. She cried. I told her, eat the casserole, baby. The food is the saying. The casserole was a mostly-frozen tater-tot situation that took fifteen minutes of effort and six months of practice to perfect.

I sent that young spouse in Lejeune three of Donna’s recipes, but the one I didn’t send — the one I keep for myself — is this one. After Ryan’s friends demolished the wings Friday night and the kitchen looked like a battlefield and my neighbor cried at the door, I needed to make something just for the making of it. The Jacques Torres cookies from the New York Times are the ones I bake when I need to remember that some things, done carefully and with good ingredients, come out exactly right every single time. They are not fast. They require patience and a night in the refrigerator. That is the point.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies {from Jacques Torres}

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 18 min | Total Time: 48 min + 24–36 hrs chilling | Servings: 18 large cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 oz) cake flour
• 1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 oz) bread flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups (10 oz) light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 oz) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or feves, at least 60% cacao content
• Flaky sea salt, for finishing

Instructions

1. Sift dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and coarse salt. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add both sugars and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3–5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add eggs and vanilla. Reduce mixer to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
4. Incorporate the flour. Reduce mixer to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, mixing just until combined after each. Do not overmix — stop as soon as no dry streaks remain.
5. Fold in chocolate. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate disks until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
6. Chill the dough. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 36 hours. This rest is not optional — it develops the flavor and texture that makes these cookies what they are.
7. Preheat and portion. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a large cookie scoop or your hands, portion the dough into balls of about 3 1/2 ounces each (roughly the size of a generous golf ball). Place 6 per sheet, spacing them well apart.
8. Bake. Sprinkle each dough ball lightly with flaky sea salt. Bake one sheet at a time on the center rack for 18–20 minutes, until the edges are golden and set but the centers still look slightly underdone. They will firm up as they cool.
9. Cool and serve. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool for at least 10 minutes before eating. They are best slightly warm but hold well at room temperature for 3 days, stored in an airtight container.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 415 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 53g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 195mg