If you're looking for the famous Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies recipe, these iconic New York Times chocolate chip cookies are known for their crisp golden edges, soft chewy centers, and rich pools of melted chocolate. Made with a blend of cake flour and bread flour and chilled for maximum flavor, this Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie recipe delivers bakery-style results at home.
Quick Look: Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies
⏱️ Prep Time: About 20 minutes
❄️ Chill Time: 24 to 36 hours
🕒 Total Time: About 24 hours 20 minutes to 36 hours 20 minutes (including chilling)
🍪 Yield: 18 to 20 Large, bakery-style chocolate chip cookies
🛠️ Tools: Mixing bowls, hand mixer or stand mixer, baking sheets, parchment paper, cookie scoop
🎉 Perfect For: Cookie lovers, holiday baking, parties and special events
⭐ Difficulty: Easy to Intermediate (simple steps, but requires advanced planning for chilling the dough)
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These Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies are jumbo bakery-style cookies with crisp golden edges, soft chewy centers, and rich pools and layers of melted chocolate throughout.
Jacques Torres is a world-famous French pastry chef and chocolatier, and his iconic New York Times chocolate chip cookies recipe quickly became known as one of the best chocolate chip cookie recipes ever published.
Just check out what one Pinterest user says about the recipe:
“I have made numerous chocolate chip cookie recipes for a friend who loves chocolate chip cookies. We have a "wow" rating. I made these for him last month and they got three wows! So, this is now my forever chocolate chip cookie!”
– Debbie
🌟 What Makes This Recipe Special
This famous recipe uses a few key ingredients and techniques that create its signature bakery-quality texture and flavor:
- Cake flour and bread flour: This combination creates the perfect balance of tenderness and chewiness
- Chocolate féves or chocolate disks: These melt into large, smooth pools of chocolate, unlike regular chocolate chips
- A 24 to 36 hour chill time: Resting the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and the flavors to develop, resulting in thicker, richer, more flavorful cookies (similar to these brown butter chocolate chip toffee cookies)
Where to Buy Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies (And Why Homemade Is Better)
If you're not into the extra steps that go into making these, you can actually buy them! Yup, if you don't want to make them you can buy them below. But, they're expensive: $25-50 dollars, not including shipping.
While I haven't bought them pre-made, Jacques Torres and the New York Times have shared the recipe, so we can make them at home. I can say the homemade version is seriously delicious.
Jump to:
- Quick Look: Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 🌟 What Makes This Recipe Special
- Where to Buy Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies (And Why Homemade Is Better)
- Key Ingredients
- Féves Substitutions
- How to Make
- Pro Tip: Scoop the Dough Before Chilling
- Tips and Tricks
- FAQ
- Storing and Making Ahead
- More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes 💫
- Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies
Key Ingredients
See the recipe card for a full list of ingredients and quantities.
- Flour: This recipe uses a mix of both cake flour and bread flour. This makes for a slightly higher protein content flour mix than regular all-purpose flour.
- Bittersweet Chocolate Féves: Chocolate disks or féves are the secret ingredient, they are chocolate disks that melt beautifully and make for a very pretty cookie. Jacques prefers around 60% cocoa. Here are a few I found online:
Féves Substitutions
While chocolate féves are traditional in the Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies recipe, they can be expensive and hard to find. I’ve previously used 5 Ghirardelli 60% baking chocolate bars, which are much more affordable and widely available at grocery stores, Target, and Amazon.
Simply chop the bars into large chunks to create the same effect as féves. This produces the signature layers and pools of melted chocolate that make these cookies so famous.
How to Make
While not difficult, there are a few extra steps to making these cookies, mainly chilling the dough to develop the flavor. For true Jacques Torres cookies, do not skip the resting process.
Make Cookie Dough
1. Prep Flour: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. Cream Butter and Sugar: Using a standing mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand-held mixer with a larger bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed for 4-5 minutes until fully combined and light and fluffy. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed to combine all the butter and sugar.
3. Add Eggs and Vanilla: Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding the next. Then mix in the vanilla extract until combined.
4. Mix in Flour: Gently add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Do not over-mix the dough or it can get tough. Mix only until just combined.
5. Add Chocolate: Gently fold in the chocolate pieces using a spatula and you’ve got yourself some Jacques Torres’ famous chocolate chip cookie dough.
Chill Cookie Dough
Chilling the dough for 24 to 36 hours (or up to 72 hours) helps create thicker cookies with deeper flavor and the signature cracked tops of Jacques Torres’ cookies. You can bake them sooner, and they’ll still be delicious, but the cookies will spread more and won't have the same texture or flavor.
1. Scoop Dough: Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat and place 3 ½ oz balls of dough on the baking sheet. This is about 5 to 6 tablespoons of dough (a large ice cream scoop works great for this). At this point you can place them close together as you will not be baking them just yet.
2. Let Rest: Flatten any pieces of chocolate that are sticking out of the tops of the cookie dough balls, then top with a sprinkle of sea salt. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 24-36 hours.
Pro Tip: Scoop the Dough Before Chilling
Scooping the dough into balls before chilling makes baking much easier later, since the dough becomes firm after resting and is easy to place on the cookie sheet. Plus, scooping firm dough is more difficult. However, you can also chill the entire bowl and scoop the dough right before baking if preferred.
The same applies to the flaky sea salt. Sprinkling salt on the soft dough helps it stick better, but you can also add it just before baking or immediately after the cookies come out of the oven. Both methods will still produce delicious cookies!
Bake Cookies and Enjoy!
Once the cookie dough has chilled, it’s time to bake your cookies:
1. Bake Cookies: When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 ℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place 6 balls of dough on the pan, leaving at least 2 to 3 inches around each cookie. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the edges are browned.
2. Let Cool and Enjoy: Once the cookies are done and the edges are golden brown, remove from oven and, if desired, top with more flaky sea salt. Let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once cool, enjoy!
Tips and Tricks
- Measure the flour correctly: Too much flour can make cookies thick, dry, and dense. For best results, use a kitchen scale. If measuring by cups, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off with a knife instead of scooping directly from the bag.
- Use high-quality chocolate: High-quality chocolate makes a big difference in flavor and texture. Chocolate féves or chopped baking chocolate bars such as Ghirardelli create the signature pools of melted chocolate that makes these cookies so special.
- Use an Ice Cream Scoop: The original cookie recipe uses large dough portions, about 3.5 ounces per cookie, which creates thick centers, crisp edges, and the signature crinkled tops. A large ice cream scoop is a great option for portioning cookie dough evenly without using a scale for each cookie.
- Flatten Chocolate Pieces: Gently press any chocolate chunks sticking up into the dough so they melt evenly and create more attractive, bakery-style cookies.
- Get Picture Perfect Cookies: These cookies naturally bake up thick and beautiful, but for extra crinkled tops, gently tap the baking sheet on the counter right after removing it from the oven. And, for perfectly round cookies, place a large round cookie cutter over each cookie and swirl it in a circular motion while the cookies are still warm.
- Dip the bottoms in chocolate for a bakery-style finish: Once cooled, dip the bottoms of the cookies in melted semi-sweet or dark chocolate and place on parchment paper to set. This adds extra chocolate flavor and is a common way bakeries serve these cookies.
FAQ
For best results, use the combination of cake flour and bread flour, which creates the ideal balance of tenderness and chewiness. If needed, you can substitute all-purpose flour, but the texture may be slightly different.
Technically, yes, you can use chocolate chips, but chocolate féves or chopped chocolate bars will give much better results. They melt into larger pools and layers of chocolate, which creates the signature bakery-style look of Jacques Torres cookies. If you cannot find féves, chopped chocolate bars are the best substitute.
You can also melt chocolate, spread it into a thin layer, let it cool, and chop it into pieces to create the same layered chocolate effect in the cookies. But, if you’re going through the trouble of making these cookies, I highly recommend using high-quality féves or chopped chocolate bars, and not chocolate chips.
Chilling the dough is highly recommended because it improves flavor, texture, and appearance of the cookies. You can bake the dough sooner, but the cookies will spread more and won't have the same depth of flavor.
Yes. The original cookie recipe uses large dough portions for extra-large bakery-style cookies, but you can easily make smaller, more traditional-sized cookies by using 2-3 tablespoons of dough and baking for 8-12 minutes.
Yes. Scoop the dough into balls and freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Bake directly from frozen, adding 1 to 2 extra minutes to the baking time.
Storing and Making Ahead
These cookies store well and can easily be made ahead of time, making them perfect for parties and holidays!
- Storing Baked Cookies: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months and thaw at room temperature.
- To make the dough ahead: Cover and refrigerate dough for up to 72 hours before baking. You can also freeze scooped dough balls for up to 3 months in an airtight container.
- To bake from frozen: Place the frozen cookie dough balls on a lined baking sheet and bake as directed, adding 1 to 2 extra minutes, or baking until done.
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes 💫
Love chocolate chip cookies? Be sure to explore this collection of fun and unique chocolate chip cookie recipes, including:
Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Mixer
- Parchment Paper or silicone baking mat
- Extra Large Ice Cream Scoop optional
- Baking Sheet
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour 8½ ounces
- 1 ⅔ cups bread flour 8½ ounces
- 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp salt decrease to 1 tsp if using salted butter
- 1 ¼ cups unsalted butt 2½ sticks
- 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar 10 ounces
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 8 ounces
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 20 oz bittersweet chocolate fèves, disks, or chocolate bars ideally 60% cocoa
- Flakey Sea Salt for sprinkling on cookies
Instructions
- If you're using chocolate bars rather than féves, chop the chocolate bars until ¼-½ inch pieces and set aside.
- Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
- Using a standing mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand held mixer with a large bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed for 4-5 minutes until fully combined and light and fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding the next. Then mix in the vanilla until combined.
- Gently add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix the dough or it can get tough.
- Gently fold in the chocolate pieces using a spatula.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and place about 3 ½ oz balls of dough onto a baking sheet. At this point, you can place them close together, as you will not be baking them just yet.
- Flatten any pieces of chocolate that are sticking out of the tops of the cookie dough balls. Then, sprinkle a pinch of sea salt and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 24-36 hours (or up to 72 hours).
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 ℉.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
- Place 6 balls of dough on the pan, leaving at least 2 to 3 inches around each cookie. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the edges are browned. Remove from oven, let cool, and enjoy!
Notes
- Measure flour using a scale or the spoon and swipe method of spooning the flour into the measuring cup and leveling it off with a knife, instead of scooping directly from the bag.
- Scooping the dough before putting it in the fridge makes baking it much easier than trying to scoop out the dough once it has firmed up.
- The same goes for adding sea salt, the salt can stick a little better if you add it to the soft dough. But you can also add the salt before baking or even right after they get out of the oven.
- This makes 18-20 extra-large cookies, but you can also make regular-sized cookies (about 2-3 tbsp dough). Adjust cooking time to 8-12 minutes.
- These cookies will last about a week in an airtight container at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookies (either baked or unbaked) for up to a month.
Billie says
I have made these multiple times, they are delicious! I’ve also swapped out the dark chocolate for milk and white for kids and they are just as delicious although for me it’s deffo the dark chocolate!
Kathryn Voyles says
Made this recipe many years ago and still best cookie on earth! But do follow recipe about whipping butter so long and using Kosher salt! Also do refrigerate dough even though you are dying to bake up now! Also I double the chocolate chips or add English Toffee bits along with chips.
wonderfulcook.com says
So yummy! One of the best cookies recipes we’ve tried. My whole family loved these chocolate chip cookies!