Showing posts with label cooking secrets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking secrets. Show all posts

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Kitchen Comforts

Tonight I made chocolate chip cookies. Simple some may say, but it is something I am very, very good at. Some may say that sounds pretty pretentious, but I am serious. People have bought ingredients for my cookies so that I could make them when I came over. I used to make batches of cookie dough for my roommate in college just so she could eat it straight from the bowl. My cookies are not from a fancy recipe. Shhh... don't tell anyone, they are just Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, but I make them in my own, very special way.

I only use one particular type of margarine (Imperial Margarine) and it has to be softened to the exact texture. (Seriously, any other butter just won't make it the same!) I put the ingredients in exactly the same way every time, and I beat the batter extra long when I add the eggs until it is creamy and fluffy. There is no special bowl just for the dry ingredients either. I just throw them all in after mixing the wet stuff. Then, the final, most special, touch... milk chocolate chips. There is just something about the smooth, creaminess of the milk chocolate chips over semisweet that just puts it over the top. It doesn't compare.

Placing a couple of cookies on a saucer with a cup of milk makes it the perfect evening snack while watching a movie. Take a look for yourself:


Doesn't that just make you want one? Tonight's batch was extra good. Sometimes they just turn out better than any other batch, and these were just that kind of batch. They were perfect in texture going on the cookie sheet and fluffy and light coming out of the oven and when they cooled, they flattened out to just the perfect thickness. Chewy and soft with stringy chocolate chips. Tomorrow evening I will have a large group of women over to my house to share in these cookies as a dessert. My husband was lucky to get these two.

There is something about a good chocolate chip cookies that is comforting. It makes me feel at home, no matter where I am. I know that wherever these cookies are made, they are for those that I love. Knowing that those I love enjoy them makes them even more special.

Do you have a special "comfort" recipe? Is it your own creation, or one that you have made so many times it has become yours?