The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve always wanted to be the mom with the best chocolate chip cookies. Lure all my kids’ friends to come hang at our house because at our house, we have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

The trick is that everyone has their own unique and particular opinion about how the perfect chocolate chip cookie should taste, look and feel. Some like them thin and crispy. Some like them thick and gooey. Some like them dry and crumbly, dipped in a glass of milk. Some like them warm and melty, straight out of the oven. I, personally, like them slightly crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, cooled just enough so the chocolate doesn’t smear all over my face. To me, the perfect cookie should be both sweet and salty, a little chunky but still soft, and loaded with chocolate.

Before I had kids of my own, I was a preschool teacher. On my very first Teacher Appreciation Day, a lovely mother of three beautiful children handed me a pretty little ceramic bowl brimming with bite-sized chocolate chip cookies. I might have eaten them all that very same day. They were the most delicious cookies EVER! It was then that I set off on my mission to make the very best chocolate chip cookies. I begged the lovely mother for her recipe, tested it out in my kitchen, and was hopelessly disappointed. They were flat. They didn’t look right at all. So I kept looking for the right chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I tried recipes with shortening. I tried recipes with extra baking soda. Browned butter. Oats. Brown sugar only.

I guess I thought maybe if I could master the culinary art of cookie baking, I would have happy, lovely children and a beautiful home full of laughter just like that mama with the bowl full of cookies. Her cookies were perfect. And to me, she was perfect too. Maybe the recipe to the perfect chocolate chip cookie, was also the recipe for the perfect mother.

When I became a mother, I quickly realized I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was doing. I began to amass books and articles, sending out desperate texts and emails to other mothers, trying to soak up as much information and advice as I could to feel like I could stand on solid ground in this very new and foreign world of motherhood.

I thought that if I could just follow the right sleep expert, my babies would sleep through the night. If I could just follow the right parenting book, my kids would listen and stop fighting. If I could just develop the right routine for our family, everyone would thrive peacefully and happily. If I could just adopt the right health remedy, my kids wouldn’t have any more belly aches or mysterious rashes.

As any seasoned parent knows, there is no one right book or routine or way for everyone. Turns out, there is also no such thing as the perfect mother (gasp).

Every mother has to find her way. And in the finding, there are lots of flat cookies. Lots of sleeplessness and hair pulling and screaming and mess. We think we find the perfect parenting book, and we test it out. Bits and pieces of good advice come together that work, and other bits make us want to stay in bed and give up altogether. So we keep what works and toss the rest. Slowly, slowly, we begin to find our footing. Our path. Our way. And it won’t look like our best friend’s. It won’t look like our sister’s or our mother’s. Finally, after so many tests and failures, we will find a groove that tastes and looks and feels right. Because it’s ours.

So after many tests, and many flat cookies, I think I finally pieced together a recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Perfect anyway, to me. Because it’s mine.

Ingredients ~

• 1/2 Cup (1 stick) salted butter – room temperature
• 1 Cup packed brown sugar
• 1 Cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 3 Cups flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 Cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions ~

Leave the butter out long enough to bring it to room temperature. (Do not microwave). Whip the butter until fluffy. Add sugars and whip again until thoroughly combined. Beat in the eggs and vanilla – yes, a whole tablespoon. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. The sifting is actually important, because it gives the cookie a little more chunk. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and slowly mix, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula. When the flour mixture has completely combined, mix on high for five seconds to pull the dough together. Add the chocolate chips and mix just until chips are incorporated.

Scoop and drop dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack.

Try not to eat so many that your stomach hurts. It’s been known to happen. So I hear.