NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've read a lot about the NYT chocolate chip cookie since I started Sweet Melissa Sundays, so I had to see what all the buzz was about. I fell in love with Melissa Murphy's recipe when we made it a few weeks back, and decided it was going to be pretty hard to beat. Since we were going to the beach this past weekend, I thought it was the perfect time to make them as they would be a nice treat after lunch on the beach.

The recipe is a little more complicated than the cookie recipes I have made in the past. It calls for two different kinds of flours and you are supposed to sift all the dry ingredients together. Honestly, I normally skip sifting together dry ingredients unless its for a cake, but I wanted to follow the recipe exactly as written to see what all the hub-bub was about. The only thing I changed was I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips instead of the favres that the recipe calls for. I had never even heard of them until I read the recipe and I knew our grocery store wouldn't have them. When I read about the recipe on Eliana's (of A Chica Bakes) blog, she mentioned it was definitely worth it to splurge on the chocolate. When we were out last weekend, I saw a bag of Guittard chips, but much to my dismay they were butterscotch chips, not chocolate. So I picked up the Ghiradelli instead.

It wasn't until the last step before baking that I realized why these cookies are so good. You are supposed to sprinkle the tops with sea salt. Brilliant- its like crack to any woman that is in the least bit hormonal. Sweet, salty, and chocolate all in one cookie! Its like eating potato chips and M&M's... The sea salt is a flavor explosion in your mouth that lingers after the cookie is gone.

This recipe really is a great one, but I still like the Melissa Murphy one as well. I asked my husband which he liked better and he said he would have to taste them both at the same time, so maybe there will be a bake-off sometime in the near future! You can find the recipe from the New York Times here.