Mmmm Cookies

The perfect chocolate chip cookie is soft, it's sweet, and it melts in your mouth and is sinfully delicious.  I've been lucky enough to find one such recipe that is just right and I have been making it for years.  They are by far my favorite cookie as well as my kids and has become part of many a friends's cookie repertoire.

It is a cookie that without fail turns out just right even slightly burnt they still taste pretty darn good with a glass of milk. It’s a very simple and classic recipe which doesn’t have any funny ingredients or odd steps in it; sometimes simplicity is the best ingredient of all.  

I definitely make these cookies more often than any other kind.  Sure I’ve tried different recipes for chocolate chip cookies and I make many other different types but I always come back to this one.  It is the cookie by which all other cookies are judged.

Since my husband was diagnosed as diabetic and our lives have gotten increasingly busy I don’t bake as often as I once did. So it’s been some time since I made these but both girls have been asking daily for me to make some for about two weeks and last night I finally did.

Now I got a little distracted at one point as I was watching a movie from the breakfast bar while making them and I had a little oopsie.  What I did was to add the chocolate chips before the butter and before mixing at all. Normally I would mix the dough with the butter before adding the chocolate chips.

You wouldn’t think it would make that big a difference however I melt the butter before pouring it in so what happened is that I poured a cup of quite hot butter over a pile of chocolate chips which being chocolate melted quite thoroughly.  My mistake was quite evident the moment I turned on the mixer and the dough turned a much different colour than normal.

Realizing my mistake I simply added more chocolate chips and so ended up with chocolate chocolate chip cookies. To quote Richard Scarry, best mistake ever.

Baking

Last night I got to sit on the couch and read a book while E baked muffins in the kitchen. She is really getting into baking and I know she wants to do it by herself but I have a really hard time not going in to help her. It is hard to change perspective I still feel like I should warn her to be careful the stove is hot.  I get nervous, I can’t help it. 

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that she enjoys baking as she has always liked to help me in the kitchen and she often enjoys doing the same things I do, and I certainly do enjoy baking and cooking.

I've always enjoyed baking the wonderful scent of fresh cookies or pastries is the best smell. Many holidays it isn't until I bake that I get into a holiday mood.  It dosen't seem right until the smell of the corresponding baking is wafting around the kitchen. I grew up helping my mother bake in the kitchen and try to encourage my girls to do the same with me. 

My biggest problem with letting E bake by herself is that she has a hard time finding things or even the recipe to begin with.  I'm organized like crazy for most things but I've never been able to keep my baking implements tidy.  The best I have ever managed is to contain all the baking supplies to the same basic area.  I have a bunch of cookbooks and loose recipes floating around and would love to actually contain them all in one spot.  

I need one of the old fashioned index card recipe boxes but every time I try to buy one I can't find any. I wonder if any of my husbands cigar boxes floating around the garage would work. Hmm now that I think about it I must go find out.