On the Constant Hunt

Well...hello there...

I'm on the hunt. Come every winter, I begin my hunt for the ideal chocolate chip cookie, purely for myself. I know everyone out there already has a loved recipe, and can make their own cookies again and again in their happy kitchens. I don't. Sadly, I don't know why, but I often struggle with making an ideal chocolate chip cookie. It's not that the cookies I make are bad or anything, they generally come out tasty...but they're never perfect. Even after some  experimentation, after I understood the general elements that went in to play when creating textures like soft, crispy, chewy, so on so forth...still no perfect chocolate chip cookie. Often times, the issue may be just a giant metaphor for my state of being. Always close, just no cigar, just some tasty and small form cigarette.

..my name is cookie dough...

The following recipe is an adaptation of a cookie recipe I've found on multiple blogs. Well..that may be a misspeak. Since I've made changes in the flavoring and method...as well as in the ingredients, amounts and types...the temperature...the size of the cookie...in actuality, this recipe isn't really an adaptation. It's really its own monster entirely.

Conclusion being, what really happened was that I browsed the internet, became inspired to get my ass off the couch, and then modified an old cookie recipe that I usually follow (which yields a softer cookie) to bake some damn, slightly new cookies. It's a great example of my stubborn or maybe even lazy tendency to not properly follow directions.

...and I am filled with TASTINESS.

In terms of texture, I'd say these cookies are on the harder side; they have really crispy edges that crunch when you eat them out of the oven. Seriously, they are the crispiest edges I've ever had in my chocolate chip cookies. After a night in the cookie jar, they lose some crisp but are still on the chewy-hard side, bending just right, If you over-bake them by like 5 minutes, like I did for my second batch, they pretty much become a crunchy cookie...and to tell you the truth, I like this result as much as I liked the first batch. I think it's crunchy because the butter has been melted first, so I wonder what the yield would be if I left the butter cold or at room temperature. Just to finish the description, the centers of the cookies are on the chewy side, the day of getting out of the oven and even days after, almost caramel-candy like. Lastly, the cookie turned out so thin, so you really don't get a soft part. It's crispy and chewy, borderline crunchy. package of goodness.

Folks, this is almost the perfect cookie for me. I made them and within 30 minutes of them coming out of the oven and cooling on the sheet, may have given myself the diabetes in the process. Even the over-baked batch was fantastic (Great news, people, hard over-done cookies work really well in the form of ice cream cookies sandwichessssssss). Final points being, I really really like these cookies, both warm out of the oven and a couple of days out. Only thing I would change about them is their height. I wish they had more rise (my cookies were super flat). I'm not sure if it's because my baking soda is old, or I didn't refrigerate enough or what, but I wish they were taller so there was more to chew on.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
 makes approx 36 small-med cookies

3/4 C salted butter
1 1/4 C dark brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 TB vanilla extract
1/2 TB almond extract
2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 C chocolate chips or chips of your choice
sea salt, to sprinkle

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter and let it come to room temperature. Cream together the butter, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar until the mixture is smooth and even. Add the 2 eggs, mixing in one at a time, and then the vanilla and almond extracts. Beat for a couple of minutes to get it as fluffy as possible. It will still look pretty wet though, because the butter was melted originally, so don't try too hard.

Fold in your sifted dry ingredients. Do not overwork, just do this part with a spatula. Once the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda) are incorporated, fold in your chocolate chips or chunks. Cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and pop your non-stick or buttered pan into the oven to heat up. I did this to get some uniform cookies and to try and minimize the cookie spreading.

Once the cookie dough is cool, using a spoon, roll the cookie dough into small rounds and place onto the

cookie sheet, keeping the cookies about 1-2 inches apart. The will spread significantly, so my rounds look less like spheres and more like tall marshmallows. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies lose that unbaked sheen (look a little cracked) and sides are brown. It is best to pull them out a little underdone (right after that unbaked sheen on top disappears) and let them cool on the cookie sheet for a bit. Don't pull them off immediately or they will break, give them 5-10 minutes. If you don't pull them out under-baked, they will become crisp cookies. After pulling on the cookie sheet and cooling, they are ready for consumption and storage in a cookie jar.

Final thoughts.

I wish cookies could solve everything in life. But they don't, and I can't even solve the perfect cookie...so maybe I'm just doomed. These cookies do solve some small  problems though, even if it is just providing some brief pleasure as the weather gets colder and colder and life becomes more and more uncertain. I will definitely bake these a couple of times this year. So while may do a lot of things wrong with my life and path, cryptic talk and criticisms aside, these cookies do something right.