You have a chocolate chip cookie recipe that’s your favorite, right? The kind that you bake over and over again because it never fails you, or perhaps if you’re like me, because it made your boyfriend fall in love with you.
Well, I’ve found another chocolate chip cookie recipe that won me over and I’m so delighted to share it with you all!
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Have you heard of Johnny Iuzzini? He’s a pastry chef, former judge of Top Chef Desserts and a cookbook author of Sugar Rush: Master Tips, Techniques, and Recipes for Sweet Baking
. Johnny sent me Sugar Rush a few months ago to check out and last week I was finally able to page through it. Immediately, my eyes jumped to the cookie section and to my delight, Johnny had crafted his own beautiful killer chocolate chip cookies. Oh J, you’re good.
Initially the recipe intrigued me because it used cake flour, baking powder, a touch of cinnamon and almond extract. I love when chocolate chip cookie recipes have a unique twist; judging by their gorgeous appearance in his book, I knew they had to be baked immediately. And of course because Tony was requesting something sweet.
So, how were the cookies? Absolutely delightful, fabulous and everything you could want in a bakery style cookie. While I love my own chocolate chip cookie recipe, I absolutely adore how Johnny’s cookies crisped up along the edges and stayed soft in the middle. The very slight almond extract flavor was perfect with the puddles of sweet chocolate chunks and bits of salt. And the cake flour in there? Genius. The tender crumb and crackly tops are everything you could ever want in a cookie.
I made just a few modifications, which I have listed below next to the ingredients. I didn’t have kosher salt for the dough or Maldon sea salt for sprinkling on each cookie, so I subbed regular salt and coarse sea salt instead. They turned out wonderful. Next time I’m going to try using the Maldon Smoked Sea Salt
.
As an added bonus and since it’s the holiday season, I’ll be giving away 1 copy of Johnny’s new cookbook Sugar Rush: Master Tips, Techniques, and Recipes for Sweet Baking. Super exciting stuff because like I said, this book is such a wonderful resource — particularly if you’re looking to advance your baking skills or experiment with different techniques.
More delicious cookie recipes you’ll love:
Dank Coconut Oil Chocolate Chunk Cookies
The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies You’ll Ever Eat
Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies {my favorite cookie ever}
Old Fashioned Iced Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Johnny Iuzzini's Killer Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup (packed) light brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (I used 1/4 teaspoon regular salt)
- 14 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), coarsely chopped
- Maldon sea salt, for garnish (I used coarse sea salt)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Put the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar into a standing mixer bowl and toss with your fingers until the butter is coated.
- Attach the bowl and paddle to the mixer and beat the butter and sugar on medium-low speed until a thick paste forms with no visible butter lumps. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.
- With the motor on low speed, add the egg and egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon; sprinkle the kosher salt over the top.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, stopping frequently to scrape down the bowl. Mix until just combined; remove the bowl from the mixer and fold the chocolate into the dough by hand.
- Using a small 1/2 ounce ice cream scoop, (I used a small cookie scoop), scoop level balls of dough and arrange them around 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheets.
- *Use the bottom of a glass to flatten the dough balls slightly (note: I skipped this part and left them as dough balls, no flattening)
- Sprinkle a little Maldon salt over each cookie. Bake for 12-13 minutes, rotating the pans once, until just set and bottoms are beginning to brown. Note: I left my cookies in for 12 minutes and they were perfect.
- Cool for 10 minutes on the pans before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Makes 3-4 dozen cookies, depending on size of your dough balls.
Recipe Notes
[…] Killer Chocolate Chip Cookies – Ambitious Kitchen […]
Sno Caps all time favorite
[…] chip cookies with hints of cinnamon and almond, topped with a bit of sea salt. adapted from: ambitious kitchen yield: about 4 dozen cookies […]
Has anyone experimented with chilling the dough before baking? The cookies were delicious, but I’m wondering if chilling them would give the final product a little more volume.
[…] Who is Johnny Iuzzini? Besides having a really cool name, he is an American pastry chef, television celebrity, and cookbook author, who resides in New York. His latest cookbook, Sugar Rush: Master Tips, Techniques and Recipes for Sweet Baking just came out in September. According to Amazon, it “is a complete baking course in a book with everything a home baker needs to confidently turn out 150 sweets with sophisticated flavors.” To purchase Iuzzini’s book, visit Amazon HERE. (Note: I actually discovered this cookie recipe via Monique’s lovely food blog, Ambitious Kitchen.) […]
My favorite is Kit-Kat
My favorite chocolate bar is a Whatchamacallit!
My favorite bar cookie is anything with peanut butter and chocolate!
My favorite is any Endangered Species Dark Chocolate Bar! So yummy!
I Love Ghirardelli’s Intense Dark Cabernet Matinee Bar!
I LOVE Toblerone <3
I love Theo’s chocolate bars. Organic and fairtrade!
I love a Skor bar!
I really love the Lindt 85% bars! Dark and delicious 🙂
I love XOXO dark chocolate with crystalized ginger! so yummy with a spicy-ginger punch every once and a while 🙂
Schaffenberger pistaschio bar is pretty wonderful
Theo’s 70% Dark Chocolate Coconut bar is my all time favorite. I lived up the street from their chocolate factory in Seattle and, I kid you not, several times a week the entire neighborhood would be filled with the smell of melted chocolate. Add that to the fact that to their sampling room was open 7 days a week and it was pretty much the perfect place to live.
This recipe looks incredibly yummy, thanks for posting!. My favorite chocolate bar is the Hershey Symphony bar with almonds and toffee.
I love anything from Ghiradelli!
I can’t walk past a Kit-Kat Bar. So simple but yet so delicious.
Anything Ritter sport. Delicious
Twix is my favorite!
I’m obsessed with Ghirardelli’s Salted Caramel squares! I also love the Marsipan and Dark chocolate from Ritter Sport, i love almond flavor!
I love a good KitKat…but for a non-traditional Candy Bar..I don’t think I try enough 🙂
I love basically any dark chocolate but during Christmas I especially love the Friar Roche!
Any Lindt chocolate bar!
Chocolove and I can’t even pick a fave of theirs….so many great combos to choose from! https://www.chocolove.com/chocolate.html
I buy them at the Fresh Market when I stop over for their $2.99 Tuesday specials. Oh how I wish my husband loved them as well so that I could have a good reason to buy chocolate bars with love poems inside. 🙂
These cookies def. look killer!!!!!! One of my faves is Chuao Butteed Popcorn Chocolate Bar!
My favorite chocolate bar is the dark chocolate toffee sea salt one at Trader Joes! Perfect mix of sweet and salty 😉
My favorite chocolate bar is the Lake Champlain 5 Star Chocolate bar…hazelnut flavor. And….well…I certainly never turn my nose up at Hersheys either! 🙂
I love anything dark chocolate, but right now, my favorite is Trader Joes’ Pound Plus Dark Chocolate bar. I break off a square when I’m craving something sweet!
My favorite chocolate bar is the chocolove bar with almonds and sea salt! 🙂
Favorite? I love them all!! I like the basics-Milky Way, Hershey’s and Dove dark.
Chocolate pretzel bar from a place called Malley’s! It is so delicious.
Lindt dark chocolate w/ sea salt!! So delicious!
Godiva chocolate is easily my favorite whether it’s bars, truffles, or cocoa.
I love Butterfingers!! Or even Clark bars!
So hard to choose! The single origin Dominican Republic chocolate bar from Kilwins is great. Theo makes a great chocolate bars as well!
My favorite chocolate bar is Twix!
I loooove Chocolove’s Dark Chocolate w/ Almonds and Sea Salt. Soooo good and no dairy!
Hmm..so in my not so distant past, I would buy the Pound Plus Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate “bar” with Almonds and break off a piece, throw it back into the pantry and run away…and then one day they were all gone…and I couldn’t believe I ate the whole thing..
I am a huge fan of Lindt’s 85% dark chocolate bar!
Totally drooling over these! They’re pretty and look PERFECT!
Lindt or Scharffen Berger are both excellent but recently I’ve taken a liking to Theo. They’re local, organic and I love the smooth taste of their chocolate; dark chocolate sea salt is my fave so far!
Wispa from the UK! Melt in your mouth chocolate!
I’m normally a dark chocolate girl, but lately I’ve been really into Theo’s 45% milk chocolate holiday bar, with coconut and mint. The mint is like a refreshing breeze, and the coconut makes it feel tropical. So addictive, and rich!
Any chocolate by Ritter. Which probably doesn’t help as they have so many – but I’ll say especially the coconut one. And also Reese Peanut Butter Cups.
Sucre Sicilian Pistachio & Rose Petal Chocolate Bar. OH. MY. GOD.
Humm…. Milka Caramel Cream! OMGYUMGETINMABELLY! I hardly ever buy it because it’s just that good.
I love kit kat!
Thanks Yolonda! You’ve been selected as the winner. I will email you shortly!
It’s a toss up between the Chuao Ravishing Rocky Road Bar and the Maple Bacon Bar
Olive and Sinclair chocolate! I like to try out different ones. They have a Mexican chocolate bar that is spicy and awesome. I also like their sea salt dark chocolate and coffee chocolate. If you go to the store in Nashville, they sell chocuterie, it’s different dessert and chocolate type charcuterie and amazing. Also, love their bourbon brittle and duck fat caramels
That’s easy! Theo’s dark chocolate salted almond. YUM.
Ugh, I loveeeeeee dark chocolate ♥ but my current favorite is endangered species’ intense dark chocolate with cacao nibs. It’s chocolate that is to die for, i love the intensity of the dark chocolate with the contrast of cacao nibs. A treat you can enjoy without guilt ♥
Galaxy bar is my favorite. Sad I can’t find them in the US
I love most of the Chocolove chocolate bars, especially Almonds and Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate. Mmmmm that would be excellent in cookies!
I love Snickers 🙂