When It’s Cold Outside, NYT Cooking Reaches for Jacques Torres Cookies

When sidewalks vanish under snow and the wind howls, turning on the oven starts to feel less like cooking and more like self-preservation. That’s exactly the mood over at New York Times Cooking, where the staff shared what they reach for when it’s freezing out, and when it comes to dessert, they head straight for Jacques Torres’s chocolate chip cookie recipe.

These are not “the recipe on the back of the bag” cookies. Jacques’s dough rests for 24 to 36 hours so the flour fully hydrates, the flavors deepen, and the texture lands in that elusive place between chewy and crisp. It’s a recipe that asks you to slow down a little and choose real chocolate and a little sea salt to achieve cookie perfection. 

The New York Times Cooking team calls it the kind of cookie worth planning around, and we agree that if you’re going to be stuck inside, you might as well make something that makes the whole house smell like a bakery. You can read what their staff loves to cook on the coldest days, including Jacques’s iconic cookies, in the New York Times Cooking feature “What Our Staff Likes to Cook When It’s Freezing Out.”