The best choc chip cookie recipes

Last week I stumbled across this gem at a $10 book store and the introduction is so good. Christina Tosi is a bit of a hero of mine. She's the owner of Momofuku Milk Bar and a dessert chef who believes that cookies can help make the world a better place.

She writes, "I want to create a world where cookies let people know it's going to be okay and remind them to let their imaginations run free."

While I haven't had a chance to make any of the cookies from Milk Bar Life yet it did inspire me to share my favourite choc chip cookie recipes - I have five! Right now they include:

Ovenly's salted choc chip cookies - my staple recipe that I love to make for people in good times and bad.

Smitten Kitchen's version is packed with chocolate and the ultimate comfort cookie.

These coconut choc chip cookies have a lovely texture to them, and they're chewy too.

Joy the Baker's milk chocolate and cream cookies are worth the effort (they also have crushed Oreos in them!).

And as a kid, I was obsessed with Neiman Marcus cookies, mainly for the nuts and the insane urban legend that goes with the recipe.

P.S I'm also constantly refining my list, so if you've found a good one, I'd love to know about it. And if you're brave, I stumbled across a recipe for pumpkin and oatmeal choc chip cookies the other day.

Salted peanut butter cookies

We picnicked on a Brooklyn rooftop one night during our honeymoon with two friends from Sydney. One of the highlights, aside from the company and watching the sun set over Manhattan, was a salted peanut butter cookie from a nearby bakery. I've since tracked down the exact recipe.

The peanut butter cookie is the caramel coloured dome sitting right by the chocolate chip one. The chocolate one beside it was salted too! The cookies, along with a slice of the famous Brooklyn Blackout cake, all came from the Ovenly bakery in Greenpoint. Our friend Matt played host that afternoon and has a studio at the nearby Pencil Factory. He led the neighbourhood expedition that took us to Ovenly, a very cute wine store and later, a restaurant where Bill Murray's son is the head chef.

The Ovenly story is such a lovely one, the co-owners met at a book club and began hatching plans to start some kind of food business together.

Here is their recipe for peanut butter cookies. It is insanely good and I reckon the secret is the peanut butter to sugar ratio and total lack of flour (!).



I made a batch to send to our friend Garry who joined us on the rooftop that night. He sent us the very best souvenir right before Christmas - a one-off copy of his forthcoming book Eye Occupy that's filled with street photos from his time in New York and Portland. Ours has a special dedication, a photo of Tony and I as newlyweds snapped right after the three of us shared breakfast and art gallery tips at Momofuku's Ma Peche.

It felt like an extra special honeymoon memento and Tony and I began brainstorm our reply. I knew I wanted to replicate the cookies we'd shared and Tony worked on a picture of the four of us from that night. Miraculously, the cookies arrived in tact.

More Ovenly goodness and recipes here. Their cookbook is high on my wish list.