Some of you darlings already know this, having been on the receiving end of my baking frenzy ways. (You may now begin to count your lucky stars). You've gotten the gamut, haven't you? Peanut butter, molasses, short bread, double chocolate chunk, and oatmeal raisin, just to name a few. Some of you have even gotten a wee bit demanding through the years. I recently got crap from a friend who after receiving a lovely gift from me said, "I really just wanted you to make me those ginger cookies."
So yes, I will toot my own horn here. I don't give myself a lot of credit for much although in addition to my cookie baking skills, I am an awesome parallel parker. (That's what a high school career with an '81 Chevette without power steering will do you.) But before I get even more off track, my point in writing this post is not to go on about what an awesome cookie maker I am. Rather, I'd just like to share a little bit of good news on the Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie front.
First off, let me just say that the recipe on that yellow bag has been engrained into my brain since my round tummy 4th grader days. My mom had an alarming amount in faith that her daughters wouldn't burn the house down so oftentimes when she wasn't around, I would whip up a batch of my favorite cookies if I so desired. Years later, when I lived in Madrid, I introduced my host family to this little baked dollop of heaven, only to discover that I had truly unleashed something. Spain has got a whole lot of awesome food to offer but cookies are not this nation's strong point. So while I let my host mother stick to her amazing croqueta making ways, I ended up baking an incredible number of cookies on a regular basis for a family that much to my chagrin, remained amazingly fit.
However, it wasn't until a few years ago, as I dumped all that sugar over those two sticks of butter that it occurred to me how crazy unhealthy these little blobs of chocolately goodness really are. So I began to experiment.
First, I tried to decrease the amount of butter by combining it with a bit of that fake butter/ yogurt spread stuff. WRONG! Yes, any baker with half a brain would know not to do this. I mean, the cookies were okay but they came out cake-like. Unable to go back to the regular recipe, however, I stopped making them altogether. For years, people. It was a dark chapter in Rachael's cookie making history.
Then recently, while visiting my parents, I found a jar of chocolate chunk cookies (yes, my mom prefers the chunks, bless her heart) that she and my niece made together. As I bit into one, I swore I heard angels singing. How had I forgotten that my mom is the ultimate master of the chocolate chip cookie? I voiced this thought to her at which point, she let me in on her secret: "Sometimes along with the butter, I use a little lard."
Some things, you just do not want to know.
So I'm not sure what came over me the other day while I was grocery shopping but I inexplicably grabbed a bag of chocolate chips and threw them in the cart. A few days later, I decided in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon that it was the most opportune time to whip up a batch of my ultimate favorite food.
Out came the bag of chips. Then out came the butter. (I wasn't even going to mess around with that ingredient this time around.) Then I checked my cupboards for sugar. I barely ever use refined white sugar anymore. However, the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of the stuff along with 3/4 cup of brown sugar. One and a half cups of sugar for 40 dinky cookies?? I started to compute the amount of sugar I've probably consumed throughout the years in all sorts of foods. No wonder I can't finish any meal without wanting to shove a chunk of chocolate into my mouth or at the very least, a stick of gum. I've practically been shooting sugar into my veins for years.
While rummaging thorugh the pantry, I found white sugar, raw sugar, and brown sugar. (That's right, I may not have milk or bread in the house but I have three kinds of sugar sitting around.) I decided to wing it: 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup raw sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
In total, I decreased the sugar by a half cup, using 2/3 of what the recipe calls for. I also added less than a cup of chocolate chips. (The recipe calls for two!) When I tested the batter, I thought, not bad. However, the smell that wafted from my kitchen ten minutes later helped me realize that I had definitely done something right. It was such a delicious aroma that when I whipped open the oven door a few minutes later, my self-control left back in the other room, I blew on one of those babies for half a second before throwing it into my mouth.
Su-PERB. Just like the cookies of my pre-high school/who-gives-a-crap-about-my-figure days.
Now I'm not going to say I can trump my mom's cookies. In my book, she is the number one cookie maker and I am her lowly apprentice. However, considering that I didn't use lard and that I barely used any refined sugar at all makes me feel pretty good. Granted, I'm not suggesting that you trade in your broccoli for these butter bits but isn't it great to see the small steps we can take to healthier living by just experimenting a bit?
And P.S. It's not just me who thought the cookies were divine. I packaged some up and mailed them to a friend. I think the word she used to describe them was "amazing." Kind of like my parallel parking skills.
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