A cookie dough foundation

BUILD YOUR IDEAL BITE

Cookies are a funny thing, laden with nostalgia. Everyone’s mother makes the best cookie; so I’m told by every mother’s kid. In reality, most of the homemade cookies I’ve had in my life have been subpar - dry, uninteresting, or overwrought. The minute someone starts to tell me about their mom’s “Snickerdoodles,” I tune out.

MY mother’s cookies, however, are faultless.

As she will readily admit, the basis of her cookie recipe comes from the back of a Tollhouse Chocolate Chip bag. As legend has it, Ruth Wakefield created this recipe in the 1930’s as an offering for her Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. She had a base recipe for a “Butter Drop” cookie to which she added some chunks of Nestle chocolate. The chocolate chip cookie was born.

And it needs to be said that just because something is mainstream doesn’t mean it can be written off. We live in a world of food fetishization, where it is immediately assumed that because something is small-batch, craft, or painstakingly fretted over it must be better. This is simply not true. The chocolate chip cookie does not require reinvention; it doesn’t need to be “cheffed up” or fucked with in any way. What you find on the back of a Toll House bag is, quite simply, as good as it gets.

(And at this point I should say: my mom increased the amount of brown sugar and decreased the amount of white sugar. She also increased the amount of vanilla.)

My mom made these cookies regularly when I was a kid, and she continues to do so today, passing along this little ritual to her grandchildren. The only major tweak is that she now stores them in the freezer after baking - she prefers the rigid, unforgiving crunch this lends to the final result.

My takeaway from years spent consuming these cookies is this: the base recipe - before the chips are added - is truly remarkable. And it’s best viewed not as part of a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but instead as a standalone cookie base upon which you can add all manner of ingredients as you see fit. In a way, this simple batter is the same “Butter Drop” cookie dough that Ruth Wakefield was working with. It is a canvas upon which you can paint your wildest cookie creations.

You can add oats, a personal favorite, which lend a distinctive chew.

I love nuts for crunch: walnut is classic, pistachio if you’re feeling fancy.

My mom swears by Heath Brickle Bits, peppering the cookie with bits of toffee.

You can add pretzels, crushed potato chips, or even coffee grounds.

Go crazy, my friends:

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A Cookie Recipe

A big time saver my mom practices is pre-batching all of her dry ingredients (including sugar) in a large Tupperware container, which she keeps at the ready in her pantry. I suggest the same.

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk or beater attachment, combine:

• 2 sticks of room temperature butter

• 2 eggs

• 1 Tablespoon of vanilla

Whip to combine and add:

• 1.5 cups Brown Sugar

• 1/2 cup sugar

Beat until creamy, and then gradually add the rest of the dry ingredients:

• 1 t. salt

• 1 t. baking soda

• 1 t. baking powder

• 2.5 cups flour

This forms your base cookie dough recipe. For chocolate chip cookies - just add chips! But I suggest having some fun and creating your own Frankenstein cookie.

To finish, bake them on a sheet tray at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. I like to keep a close eye at the 10 minute mark and depending on the oven I might pull them early. They will continue to cook a bit on the hot sheet tray, but I like a soft center, slightly underdone.