I love my wife. I'm sure that that comes as no surprise to anyone. However, my wife loves someone else. Well, someTHING else. She loves........., Chocolate Chip Cookie. Being the person I am, secure and confident, I am not threatened by you Cookie. So, this week, I was on a mission. I actually wanted to improve the relationship between Cookie and my wife.
I'm a big believer in knowing your Love Language and the Love Language of your spouse, partner, husband wife, whatever. *Side note: If you've never read Love Languages or Love Languages for Children by Gary Chapman, they are great! I'm not too into his religious side, but the concept of the books is wonderful. ** Ok, back to Cookie.
So, in an earnest desire to improve this relationship between Cookie and my wife, I went in search of how to bake the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. In theory, this cookie is simple. However, everyone, I've found, and I mean EVERYONE, likes theirs different (I use the word THEIR correctly for you Connie). I like mine soft. Nope. Not a fan of the crunchy cookie. Not in the least. My wife, likes the Everest of Chocolate Chip Cookies; crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Off I went on my quest.
In my research, I found many things out. The reason the recipes for this Cookie tell you to use room temperature or softened butter, is solely to make it easier to mix. That's it. The only reason. To make the Cookie my wife loved and wanted, it was a much more labor intensive batch of love. Cold. Everything I read said to keep everything as cold as you possibly could for the entire process. Yes. The entire process. Into the kitchen I went.
As I said, in theory, the recipe for Cookie is simple. Flour, Sugars, oils, eggs, etc. I put together several things I found and began my special unique batch of Chocolate love (Stop snickering). I took a large glass bowl and put in my white bread flour, white whole wheat flour and other ingredients into it. Put that aside. I then took another large bowl with my sugar, brown sugar and real butter. Cold. Cold, hard, real. Butter. If you've ever worked with butter, you're going to have a real appreciation for this next part. Instead of using the mixer or anything like that, I thought it would be a good idea to cut the butter into my dry ingredients by hand (I said stop laughing). So, with bowl and ingredients in hand, I grabbed a strong fork and went to sit down on the couch.
Wife was there and we watched Four Christmases while I cut the butter into the sides of the bowl. I had taken three sticks (yes, it was a large batch) and cut them into pieces. One I left whole to see what worked better. At first, whole butter worked better because I could kind of lathe it off with the fork, but in the end, poor whole butter, he ended up in pieces like the rest. Cutting this butter into the dry mix and actually getting to the point where it was creamed, honestly; was a bitch. I probably sat there for about a half hour easy doing this. I now have forearms like Popeye might I add. **Side note: vanilla is widely considered as just a 'flavor enhancer'. I found this interesting and made a batch of cookies without it. A lot of people said they couldn't tell the difference. I beg to differ. I gladly added the vanilla to my creamed bowl of love.
After said creaming was complete, the mix went back into the refrigerator because everything had to stay cold through the entire process. Once it had chilled, I added the eggs. Imagine if you will, cold butter and sugar, and then add slimy eggs. Another interesting and somewhat difficult task in this relationship improving exercise. Regardless, it got done. At this point I did have to let the creamed mixture warm up a little because I had to mix it with my flour, salt etc. I didn't let it get to room temperature, so it was a little difficult, but once it was all mixed, it was a pretty nice Chocolate Chip Cookie base. **Side note, I NEVER use shortening in any recipe.
I was really happy to be done with the labor intensive part of this Cookie. I quickly added the chocolate chips and put it back into the refrigerator to get cold. My only mistake in this process was to not separate half of the mix and add nuts before re-chilling, but even that turned out to be alright. Ok. Standard across the board cooking times for Chocolate Chip Cookies seems to be between 9 and 11 minutes. 6 to 8 for a simpler, blander cookie. I decided to start at 9 and then do a minute by minute check. After two batches, I determined that my cookies were 10 minute cookies. Perfect. I usually taste as I'm baking or cooking, but I was so busy this night, and the process of the Cookie alone had been so time consuming, that I didn't. I just made batch after batch and removed them from their parchment paper backing to cool on my cut up Whole Foods paper bags.
With only one batch of mix remaining, at about 10 pm that night, I threw in the towel. I was exhausted and had to work the next day. I cleaned up, bagged and wrapped everything up (I'd also made pumpkin spice pecan bread and several versions of banana bread as I was sending much of the nights production to a friend in Afghanistan), and went to bed. I went to work the next day not even really thinking about Cookie. I was sure that Cookie and my wife were at home getting acquainted.
The day after that, I took a small baggy to work to let a couple of co-workers try them out. They said they were some of the best Chocolate Chip cookies they'd ever had. Hm. I didn't know about all that. I still hadn't tried one. Wife had said they were really good, but I was so tired at that point, that I didn't really think much of that either. I did tell my Cookie making story at work though lol. Finally, today, two days after making them, I had one. They were perfect.
Now, I'm not claiming that they're the best I've ever had, not by far, because I know some fabulous bakers/cooks, and I've had some good Cookies. When I say perfect, I mean that they were perfect for my wife. It was the perfect Cookie for her. They were crispy on the outside, but not hard, not over browned. They were soft and cake-like on the inside. For whatever reason, many of them actually retained the softness of the chocolate chips that they usually only keep while warm. They were pretty darned good. In that moment, it was all worth it. More then worth it.
Am I fostering a relationship between my wife and Cookie? Yes, definitely. I think that they make a good pair. Besides, if Cookie gets on my nerves, I just handle him by biting his head off. He usually doesn't bother me anymore after that. Unless I miss a workout ;)
