Is the perfect chocolate chip cookie this year's No-Knead Bread? And if so, are chocolate féves this year's instant yeast?
When the No-Knead Bread recipe came out there was a run on instant yeast and Dutch ovens as people raced to try this fabulous bread. Now these chocolate discs are in the baking spotlight, since the recipe promises they give much better results than plain old chocolate chips.
So, where do you find these things?
Chocolate féves are the flat, wide disks of chocolate recommended by Jacques Torres for this new "perfect" chocolate chip cookie recipe. Why discs? What's wrong with plain old chocolate chips?
First of all, the quality of the chocolate counts. Usually these flat discs are only used by professional bakers; they're designed to be easy to melt for professional couverture and shaping. So the quality is proportionally higher than the waxy chocolate that consumers are often stuck with at the grocery store. Torres recommends at least a 60% cacao content.
Secondly, these discs, according to Torres, create strata of chocolate - thin dark streaks instead of gooey chunks. The thin discs melt into these layers that give more chocolate and cookie in each bite - instead of chunks of chocolate mixed with chunks of cookie.
Commenter louiedog confesses surprise after our post on making these cookies, saying that it's surprising that most bloggers haven't used the féves in their test runs - just chips. If you want to make these as written, here are a few good sources for the féves. They're not as common as chocolate chips, but they're still not difficult to find.
• Bittersweet Chocolate - Guittard Onyx Wafers, 1 pound, $7.95 at King Arthur Flour
• Guittard Semisweet Wafers, 1 pound, $9.95 at King Arthur Flour
• Valrhona Dark Chocolate Couverture "Les Feves" Grand Cru Manjari 64 % Cocoa, 2.2 pounds, $29.99 at World Wide Chocolate. The very best!
• Michel Cluizel Bittersweet Callets, 1 pound, $15 at Market Hall Foods. Comes in both 60% and 72% cacao varieties.
Related: Good Product: Callebaut Couverture Callets
ALSO... NY Times Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie: What's Your Verdict?
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I shall get on top of those and bake some real cookies.
view reggiesoang's profile
Surfas in Culver City (CA) has them, but not online for some reason.
view mgn's profile
when I used to live in NYC (ahh, those were the days) I'd get great chocolate from Fresh Direct. Was cheap and great stuff. Look in FD.com under "Baking Chocolate" - E. Guittard chocolate wafers.
@mgn - I think Surfa's doesn't shop chocolate because it's too risky with the heat, etc. But I've called them before and ordered items they have in the store but aren't available online.
view mangosteen's profile
See's Candy sells chocolate chips that are more like disks. They're delightful in regular chocolate chip cookies so I imagine they'd work reasonably well in these, too. And in California, at least, it's pretty easy to find a See's Candy.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
Are there any cheaper options near Seattle, perhaps? I don't want to bother with ordering something like chocolate online, and the price for the chips I got at Whole Foods was excessive.
Does Trader Joe's have anything that'd be useful here?
view rizzuhjj's profile
Am I the only person who thinks those prices are insane???? Is the taste REALLY that much more extremely delicious? I pay 3.00 for a bag of chocolate chips and my cookies are delish.
http://organicandnaturalmom.blogspot.com/
view luv2cook's profile
I used Ghiradelli Bittersweet Chips (60% cacao). They appear to be larger in size than their regular chips. The results were fantastic as evidenced here:
http://izzyeats.blogspot.com/2008/07/it-chocolate-chip-cookie-500-calorie.html
However, next time I would definitely try using the feves. I believe that Jacques Torres carries them here and they are not too pricey:
http://www.mrchocolate.com/detail.aspx?ID=58
view izzy's mama's profile
Lunds, in the Twin Cities, sells chocolate discs. I think they buy them in bulk and repackage them. I bought mine packaged in a little reusable tub. I can't remember what brand they are.
view ah-ha's profile
izzy mama, those are the cheapest disks/feves I've seen around. Thanks for the link.
view rizzuhjj's profile
Forget that comment. For $20 worth of chocolates, shipping is $41.65 to Seattle. Yikes -- darn summer weather!
Sigh, there has to be a local option!
view rizzuhjj's profile