I've had a copy of Martha Stewart's Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe lying in wait on my counter for at least a week. I printed it out one night when I was searching for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. I was searching for the recipe because I had a partial bag of chocolate chips in the cabinet, left over from the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which were calling my name. Seriously, if I was sitting at my desk and all was calm in the apartment I could just hear the whisper of words, "Michael, bake us into something."
I'm not one that generally sits around eating sweet, fattening foods. I have a phobia about getting fat. Those chips have been in my apartment for more than two weeks uneaten. That's a testament to my will power. However, there are times when a man just needs to indulge and I can also be caught indulging...sometimes.
I had enough chocolate chips in the apartment to make half the recipe. That's kind of a win/win situation. 1) I'm getting to make something new and 2) I'm not sitting in my apartment with 3 dozen cookies that whisper an altogether different phrase. Namely, "Eat me!"
Back to the kitchen, I started cutting the recipe in half. This wasn't really a problem as I had the appropriate measuring cups and spoons for half of each ingredient. Except for one: the 1/8 of a cup of flour I needed. I don't have a 1/8 of a cup breakdown on any of my measuring implements. I just eyeballed what I thought was half of a 1/4 cup, threw it in the bowl and quit thinking about it.
It really is getting easier, less intimidating, to follow a recipe. I have an obsessive-compulsive nature to some degree. When I get an idea or find a challenge, I get locked into it until I complete the task. I find myself searching recipes on The New York Times website these days. It's just a "print" click away until it's in my hand and the dish is on my mind. It's exciting for me. I'm not saying I've made a 7 coarse meal or anything like that, but I'm able to make things that will feed me and sometimes another person or two.
I made the cookie dough in advance and put it in the refrigerator until I was ready to bake. In my opinion, the dough was much easier to scoop into balls after it was harder from its 'fridge visit that it would have been in its creamy state of gooeyness right after mixing it. Minds out of the gutter, people!
I preheated the oven to 350°, sprayed the cookie sheet with Pam® with butter, placed ice scream scoop sized balls of cookie dough on the sheet and placed the sheet in the oven. I set the timer for 8 minutes and went back to watching my current obsession, Dark Shadows: The Beginning.
Eight minutes later the cookies were not fully baked. The recipe says 8-10 minutes so I set the timer for 2 more minutes. That was perfect. They smelled amazing. The aroma of vanilla filled my house. I was afraid before the baking commenced that there was too much vanilla in the dough. I was wrong. As the cookies cooled enough to hold in my hand, I tasted the gorgeous combination of ingredients exploding in my mouth. The cookies had crispy edges, with a firmer yet slightly gooey center.
The amount of cookie dough I used for each cookie made half of the recipe bake up to a dozen cookies. I ate two of them that night then put the lid on the bowl and sealed them away from my sight and smell.
The next day I took them to Family Dinner night where they were much appreciated and enjoyed. I ate two more.
Cheers!
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