If you’re ever in the OC or SD Blackmarket Bakery makes a great chocolate chip cookie. But don’t go before like 11am because they are still usually cooling off. Don’t judge me, it’s no different than having a donut or cereal for breakfast.
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Kismet Rotisserie has a “tahini chocolate chip cookie.” But I couldn’t taste any tahini and I’m not sure what it does to the texture. It has a fairly firm texture, but not crunchy. And I like the sprinkle of salt on top. My favorite at the moment is the one from Proof (which you can also get at Wax Paper in Chinatown). But if you’re in Hollywood, Kismet works.
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Fantastic salt crystal content.
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Paderia in FV/Irvine. They do 2 kinds a sea salt and a walnut chocolate chip cookie. Malsadas and egg tarts as well! One of the best bake stores in OC. And they help fed my friends over at Kaiser, University of California Irvine and sister hospital UCLA!
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I’ve never even thought of getting a cookie at Paderia but will the next time I’m there. Paderia and Shin Sen Gumi is a great bang bang.
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My favorite is the original Toll House recipe but with half the chocolate chips and twice the walnuts.
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Original Toll House is King.
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Does the Toll House recipe give you a nicely browed exterior w/ a decently chewy interior? It’s prob been a few decades since I made a cookie from that recipe, but I remember them being a bit blonde.
And, yes, I get that you can cook them longer, but then I worry about overcooking the whole thing. Maybe I need to make them thicker?
J. Kenji says refrigerating the dough overnight increases caramelization and browning.
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Love toll house . My trick is the butter in the recipe. I’ll brown it first before adding it into the mix
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I had this for the first time a few days ago. I liked the dough and the bake a lot (I don’t mind cakey and like chewy). The chocolate chips, though, were a bit disappointing. Kind of… grainy? They didn’t have the luscious, smooth melt that defines a great choc chip cookie. Still very tasty, though.
One of our cats like Cookie Good so much that she grabbed one from the closed box in the middle of the night. Argh!!!
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Been doing this for years. Can attest. Refrigerating the dough at least overnight makes a huge difference.
The other interesting thing is if you’ll notice some of these cookies have this strange texture on top. Look at photos above of Fat & Flour and likely Proof. Some bakers in order to give the cookie more surface area to crisp and create different textures, and assure crisp edges and soft centers, scoop or spoon the ball of dough then refrigerate it at least an hour. Then cut or break in half and take it and invert it and press it lightly on top of the other half.
Like this:
(Had to find a photo online because I’ve never taken a picture of my prebaked cookie dough.)
More ridges and crevices to crisp up while staying soft in the center.
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Too bad I’m trying to play nice right now. 
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How did we not know about your cookie-baking knowledge until now??? You’ve been holding out on us!!!
BTW, do you have a fav choc-chip cookie? 
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LOL. I’m not a huge sweets eater.
Wifey and I go out for ice cream and I’m happy taking one or two tastes of hers. Yet, I love ice cream. Go figure.
So I don’t go all over town looking for cookies. I bake them (and then rarely eat any). My wife is an NP so I bake for her and her coworkers at UCLA.
But… I too loved Stella Barra. It’s been a long time. I’ve never been to the location in Santa Monica so I do not know how they are there.
This thread however, has inspired me to check out a few places.
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Share your cookie recipe
I am no expert. I’m sure there are better bakers here like @TheCookie and @Happybaker and @Dommy, et al.
I just do original toll house with a couple of alterations. Know that I like my cookies to spread, not the thick ones. I can say that when I bake them, most people are shocked and in disbelief that they are based on toll house.
- Cream the hell out of the butter sugar mixture.
- Instead of using just semi sweet morsels use semi sweet chunks, semi sweet morsels, and milk chocolate morsels.
- I skip the nuts
- Refrigerate dough overnight
- Use the technique from above
- Dough should be kept cold right until the minute it goes to the oven
- Bake on parchment PAPER
- Bake a minute or two longer than what the recipe says but not more than when you see the edges get color. Mine come out crispy but soft inside.
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Good tips.
Don’t let the name fool ya’. 
I have a few uncomplicated recipes under my belt.
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Good tip. Creaming the hell out of the sugar and butter is key. It took me a very long time to figure this out. Makes a huge difference.
A lot of recipes call for both granulated and brown sugar so I’ve been doing that as well.
Use good baking chocolate. I’ve tried a bunch and our favorite is the valharona. Anybody else have a favorite type of baking chocolate?
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Batch Two
Botanica
The chocolate pecan cookie is a neighborhood cookie from a neighborhood restaurant. First though, a tangent on nuts in chocolate chip cookies… there are people out there that are opposed to nuts in cookies and brownies if it’s not specifically built around that nut, like a peanut cookie. I’m not one of those people—if a cookie wants to have nuts in it let it be—at the very least it adds another dimension. Now that’s out of the way, this cookie does multiple things to tweak the formula. It’s soft baked and doesn’t have much crisp, but the spelt and whole wheat flour create a depth of flavor that goes in a different direction than what’d you’d expect from a neighborhood spot. In addition, the chunks of bittersweet chocolate and toasty pecans show it’s reaching just higher than your expectations while staying in your comfort zone.
Go Get Em Tiger
Soft, appropriately salty, and so so greasy. Picking it up, it’s basically shouting there’s a lot of butter in here, as if the spread wasn’t enough to tip you off. This also sort of leaves the chocolate clumped together and unevenly distributed as @film_score2 points out. That means you get some epic bites loaded with chocolate, and other bites you wish were those epic bites.
Clementine
As @paranoidgarliclover, @mchen , and @TheCookie, pointed out, this cookie is a masterclass in the fundamentals. It’s not getting cute with any of the ingredients, but it does everything right from the crisp edges, layered chocolate chunks, and chewy center. It’s the level of execution on each individual element with no flaws that is incredible.
Patisserie Chantilly
These small cookies push against all other mainstream chocolate chip cookies. They share the same basic ingredients (plus walnuts) but whereas others are large, wide, and flat, these are tiny, narrow, and tall. The result is a highly consistent, uniformly cooked cookie. That fits the MO of Patisserie Chantilly, where high quality bites demand precise execution. While that means the entire pack (there are 5 small cookies) doesn’t have any duds, it also looses that spontaneous excitement of other cookies. Moreover, it also just doesn’t feel indulgent, and when placed among all of Patisserie Chantilly’s other offerings, this cookie is really only for your 2 year old niece that only has the pallet for dino chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and chips-a-hoy. Though she might still be upset at the walnuts.
Lemonade
The corporate cookie. But also quite a tasty cookie. I got to hand it to Lemonade who really could have just coasted with a checks-the-boxes cookie for the office working crowd just trying to get some afternoon sugar after eating their desk salad (no shade to Lemonade—I actually love them). So yes, this is really a paint by the numbers cookie in taste and flavor, but it’s also outstanding in texture. It’s packed with chocolate and perfectly underdone throughout until just the edges. It also comes wrapped in plastic and if they’re baked fresh this might actually keep it wonderfully soft. It may not be a cookie you go out of your way for, but when it comes to a dessert that will ruin the healthy lunch you just had, it’s worth the hit.
Kismet Rotisserie
I wanted to check out the tahini chocolate chip cookie at @lilmikey’s recommendation, and I definitely tasted the nuttiness of the tahini, which makes me wonder about the consistency between batches. The tahini is a nice complement to the chocolate and salt. The most interesting thing is it’s a bit airy and feels lighter than others, yet still is not crispy or crunchy or hard. It gets the job done and the texture exceeded my expectations.
Sqirl
A solid all around cookie with bittersweet layers of chocolate and no traces of mold. I get the sense that this cookie really is just filler in the pastry case, because there are lots of other great, more interesting things that Sqirl turns out. At least that means there won’t be any debate over who’s recipe this is, just because it’s so middle of the road. Though the rogue spreading does give it an extra charm.
Whole Foods
The Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookie from Whole Foods is probably easy to overlook. However, it’s got a great flavor from the browned butter and actually has one of the deepest pure chocolate flavors of cookies sampled. Add on a great texture and all of a sudden it’s an extremely competent cookie. It’s probably not one you’ll go across town for, but also one you won’t need to with the number of Whole Foods in town.
Gjusta
When I opened this up, it was immediately apparent that this cookies shares the same DNA as the Fat + Flour chocolate chip cookie. This makes sense since Chef Rucker used to run the show there, but Gjusta’s version is just not quite as good. It has those same elements: quality chocolate, little flecks of oats, nice spread, but there’s also a je ne sais quoi that separates them. Maybe it’s that the Fat + Flour version is a little bit buttery-er or a little bit saltier or a little bit chewier 
The Gjusta chocolate chip oatmeal cookie is by no means a miss and still great, and if that’s what’s in your neighborhood you can’t go wrong. It’s also just that there’s another one on the other side of town that’s essentially the same but better.
Ototo
Noticing the young cookie as part of Ototo’s new ice cream sandwich, I asked Courtney if I could get one sans ice cream to get a pure take on it. It’s billed as a miso chocolate chip cookie, and the miso is immediately apparent, creating the most unique and incredible flavor of the cookies I’ve had. It’s got an interesting orange hue and is also cakier, which I really dug. I know pastry chef Gemma Matsuyama has been crushing it lately, but with the ubiquity of the chocolate chip cookie, it’s easy to see how this one could go overlooked. Cream puffs will get all the attention, but this cookie might be her most under the radar item. Don’t sleep on it.
The journey continues…
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