Chewy versus pillow-soft. Crispy edges versus golden brown. Gooey oatmeal versus rich molasses. How can anyone choose? Gwen Steege takes you through her impressive backlog of creative, easy-to-follow chocolate chip cookie recipes, from the classic sugar dough to crazy mocha pinto chippers and everything in between. Everyone has a different idea of what makes a chocolate chip cookie truly perfect, but with 101 recipes, you are sure to find a favorite...or two, or three!
Gwen W. Steege is the coauthor of The Weaving Explorer. She has been weaving for nearly 35 years and has exhibited her work in western Massachusetts, where she lives. For many years she acquired and edited a line of craft books at Storey Publishing focused on spinning, dyeing, knitting, crochet, and weaving. She is the author of a number of knitting books, including The Knitter's Life List.
Part One:
The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie
If it's not chocolate, it's not dessert!" That's been our family motto for years, no matter how small, or how special, the occasion. And we're surely not alone in our passion. Since its discovery centuries ago, the very word chocolate has always conjured up images and aromas of rich sauces, elegant mousses, steaming hot drinks, delectable fudges, and moist, dark cakes.
This superstar ingredient appears in dozens of favorite desserts and drinks, but one of the most universally popular is that particularly American invention, chocolate chip cookies. Warm from the oven, they're the perfect offering to a cranky child, the supreme appeasement for a lover's quarrel, the ideal gift to a special friend, and the ultimate bedtime snack.
In 1987, it was the bedtime snack that struck the fancy of Chester Soling, then owner of The Orchards, an inn in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. The Orchards offered their guests fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and cold milk by their beds every night. And these weren't just any chocolate chip cookies. They were baked from recipes submitted to a nationwide contest sponsored by the inn. The search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie led to this book, which includes the winners and a selection of more than 100 of the 2,600 entries received from almost every state, as well as from Italy, Canada, and Mexico.
The contributors to this book - the contestants - describe how their recipes are special or how they came to them. Some share family recipes brought to North America from Europe over a century ago. Others relate how their experiences influence the way they think about food: An anthropologist teaches her children to consider where ingredients are grown and how they became locally available, a wheat farmer's daughter from Saskatchewan, Canada, remembers the magic that unrefined flour put into any recipe, a parent describes the enjoyment a batch of cookies brought to residents in a Ronald McDonald House, a facility for critically ill children and their families.
Another important contributor to this book is Orchards pastry chef Heather Andrus, whose patient advice and guidance helped educate me about the many refinements of chocolate chip cookie baking. Two of Heather's own favorite cookie recipes appear on pages 29 and 30.
Because each chocolate chip cookie recipe included in this collection has particular significance and appeal, it wasn't easy to choose a winner! As you bake your way through this book, you may find your own special favorite recipe, or, better still, you can take off from these tips, ideas, and recipes to create your own perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Part Two: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
We now enter the realm of the serious chocolate eaters - those who believe that if some chocolate is good, twice as much is better. These gourmets find chocolate chips alone inadequate to satisfy their longings, they desire their chocolate chips surrounded by a rich chocolate cookie.
Prize-Winning Double Chocolate Chip Cookie.
