We are no strangers to chocolate chip cookies–over the years since we first started baking, we’ve tried out so many recipes. A freshly baked chocolate chip cookie is probably both of our favorite desserts, and our younger brothers are equally obsessed! Our favorite everyday recipes include, more recently, this and, formerly, this;  both are great. Sometimes, though, you want a chocolate chip cookie that is dinosaur-sized, with a thick, chewy, and soft middle and crispier, caramelized edges, with ripples of chocolate all the way through and a hearty pinch of sea salt flaked across the top. If this is the type of cookie you want (and need) this weekend, you’ve come to the right place. These cookies are perfect.

Be forewarned: these cookies require about 24 hours in the fridge before you can bake them. I know–nobody wants to wait for a cookie. But the payoff is more than worth it. These were among the best chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever made. One other note is that the recipe calls for chocolate disks, which melt into pools of chocolate inside the cookies. We used half of these and half regular chocolate chips and were perfectly happy!

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe originally from The New York Times (as the name suggests), but we followed Smitten Kitchen’s slightly adapted version

Makes 18 5-inch (!) cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces, 280 grams or 2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups (240 grams) light brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 grams) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse or kosher salt
• 3 1/2 cups plus 2 teaspoons (445 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 pounds (565 grams) bittersweet chocolate disks
• Sea salt

Directions

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing to combine. Add in vanilla and then scrape down bowl with a spatula. Sprinkle baking soda, baking powder and salt over dough and mix in until totally combined. Add flour and mix until it just disappears; do not overmix. Add the chocolate and stir to incorporate. Cover bowl and chill in fridge for a minimum of 24-72 hours (we pulled ours out a little before 24 hours and they were still delightful).

Heat oven to 350 degrees and line several large baking sheets with parchment paper. Form dough into ~3 1/2-ounce (~100 gram) balls. Arrange balls of dough far apart on sheets to leave plenty of room for spreading and sprinkle the tops of each with a bit of flaky sea salt.

Bake cookies for 12 to 17 minutes, until golden all over but still a bit soft in the middle.

Cool cookies on trays for a few minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool (but you should eat one hot out of the oven).