Yesterday’s New York Times article on chocolate chip cookies touched on some tricks of the cookie trade, including refrigerating the dough, serving the cookies hot, and sprinkling them with sea salt. The article also addressed chocolate.
Personally, I think the thing that makes chocolate chip cookies so special is that they are so simple. Ironic considering my cookie creations, I know, but when you start messing with la-di-dah imported chocolate or using close to a 1-1 chocolate-to-dough ratio, you're not really dealing with chocolate chip cookies anymore. Instead, you're dealing with expensive delivery systems for fancy chocolate.
Comparing a Toll House or any other homemade cookie to a gourmet one sold at an expensive Manhattan bakery is kind of like comparing a home-grilled hamburger with one of those super-gourmet, super-expensive “bistro” burgers that are made of grass-fed Wagyu beef and stuffed with fois gras and black truffles.
Sure, it’s a “burger” insomuch as it’s round, made out of meat, and served on a bun, but could it ever truly rival a simply seasoned chuck burger topped with ketchup and a pickle or two?
What's true with burgers is true for cookies, and that’s why my Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies use only Toll House semisweet chocolate chips and Hershey's milk chocolate: simple ingredients + simple cookie = perfection.
Yikes…that was a double compare and contrast with a metaphorical twist. Talk about rhetorical acrobatics! But did I stick the dismount?
Well put, Oatmeal Cookie Guy....you stuck the landing!
Posted by: Jonnazz | July 10, 2008 at 10:32 PM
As usual, you do have a way with words - equal to your way with cookies!
Posted by: Lorraine | July 11, 2008 at 08:31 AM
Thanks, Lorraine. I guess all those years as an English textbook editor paid off. Let's hear it for the modes of development!
Posted by: Oatmeal Cookie Guy | July 12, 2008 at 10:43 AM