Homemade
warm chocolate chip cookies. Hands down, no contest, best cookies
in the world. (And it’s not even close. In fact, some estimates
say that of all the cookies baked in the world each day, roughly
half are chocolate chip.)
So,
how do you like your cookies?
For
most of us, the option is simple: with or without nuts. Clean.
Basic.
But
we can expand on that part easily enough. Are you a walnut person?
Or do you prefer pecans? It isn’t just a question of whether or
not you’re adding nuts. The type of nut matters. I even have friends
that will explain, in detail at great length, the importance of
toasting the nuts first.
(Yup.
Toasted nuts. And you thought a chocolate chip cookie essay wasn’t
going to get deep and serious and controversial.)
I’ll
admit, part of this idea came to me because I was debating whether
or not to make some cookies. But honestly, the true motivation
was continuing news of the worldwide vanilla shortage.
Most
reports will place about eighty-percent of the world’s supply
of vanilla as coming from Madagascar. Eighty-percent. 80%. That’s
a pretty big number. There have been troubles with the crops in
Madagascar, and reports in several places about the reasons. Some
of it is interesting reading.
Have
you ever baked? Then you know vanilla gets mentioned. A lot.
Have
you ever gone shopping for vanilla? Then after seeing the price
you’ve likely uttered the reaction, with frustration and surprise:
“How much for an ounce?”
Decades
ago… yes, decades ago… I was making some cookies. Mom’s kitchen.
Well stocked. You need some type of extract, trust me, she has
it. Lemon? I guarantee you she has that. Almond? No question.
On
this particular day, I wasn’t looking closely at everything, grabbed
a bottle, and ended up adding coconut extract to the batch. Noticed
just after I did it, but the change was made. I added the vanilla
and ran with it.
The
results were great. Loved them. I don’t have coconut extract in
my house though, never remember it when I’m in the store, and
haven’t made an attempt at repeating the error.
But
there’s more to the idea of chocolate chip cookies than nuts and
vanilla. Many people can walk you through the process of creaming
together the butter and sugars in different ways. Others will
tell you about raising and lowering amounts of different items
depending on your preferences for crispness. And yet…
For
me, we all have the base recipe we like to use. Like my coconut
extract story, we have the ingredients we want and habits rarely
change. So, the incredible thing is when you begin to wade into
some other territories.
Oatmeal.
I LOVE oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. In fact, when
they’re warm and direct from the oven and the milk is cold… dear
lord, I love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
One
recipe I have I mutated a few years ago into a bit of a bullet-proof
cookie. Based on an oatmeal chocolate chip, but you can basically
add anything. Butterscotch chips? Sure. They’re brilliant in it
with pecans. Toffee chips? Absolutely. The possibilities are endless.
And
yet, we need to return to where we started. You can twist the
recipes any way that suits your desires. The reality remains…
Homemade
warm chocolate chip cookies. Hands down, no contest, best cookies
in the world. (And it’s not even close.)