Cookies make me happy.

So, I return to cookie making.  Yes, cookies make me happy, and my jar does not stand long-empty before I am back in the kitchen, revving up the mixer for a new batch to satisfy my fix. Someday, I will open my own bakery and make cookies for everyone in Metter!  But until then I’ll just fatten up my four boys (and myself.)

I’m not going to include a list of my favorite cookie recipes, because none of them are mine.  I will, however, share with you my favorite cookie book:

http://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Cookie-Book-Best-Loved/dp/0028626036

I actually intend on getting a new copy, because mine is literally falling apart.  The project will also include the tedious task of transferring all my notes and ratings.  I love to write in my cookbooks.  I star the recipe (unhappy face for really bad, one star, two stars, three stars, and three stars and a happy face for superbly scrumptious) and include the date I first made it.  I include if it was for a special event, like a birthday, and if I added or omitted anything or altered the cooking directions, etc. or just why it was bad.  My cookbooks look a lot like my Literature textbooks, where I often jot down teaching ideas, point out literary references or meanings, and argue with the authors. Most of the recipes in my Betty Crocker Cookie Cook Book have three stars and a happy face.  Cookies are just good, and hard to mess up (unless you put them in the oven and go chase after your 2-year-old who has just opened up strawberry jello packets all over the sofa and attempted to eat them.)

I also stand by my grandmother, master of all things cookie, that the best cookie recipe was invented by Nestle Tollhouse and is conveniently located on the back of the yellow bag.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Cookies, btw, are not part of the cooking cheap section of this blog, but the part that involves staying sane.  I will say that box cookies are usually expensive and/or hard and basically will never be as good as its homemade version.  Cookie dough in a tube is really only good for eating raw, as a good friend of mine and I actually did once.  The main thing in cookies that costs any kind of money is the additives.  So, in chocolate chip cookies, you are paying for the chocolate chips; in the peanut butter cookies, the peanut butter; and so forth.  The way I get around this is to stock up on chips when they are on sale, and then put them up in the freezer.

Most drop cookie recipes involve the same process, so once you get used to it, you are the master of cookies.  I like to throw some butter Crisco in with the butter.  This makes the cookies come out a bit softer.  I also enjoy the whole batter process.  The butter and sugar get to “cream,” which basically means you beat the crap out of them until they smooth together into perfection.  Then the eggs and vanilla go in and get beat well until the batter fluffs a bit.  Finally, you slowly add the flour and scrape it all down and mix again.  Who would ever want to use “place and bake” cookies?!  Even with the craziness of homework and poopy diapers… there is always time somewhere to make a batch of cookies from scratch.

A note on bowl licking… bowl licking is an essential part of cookie-making, and anyone who scares you with the uncooked egg thing is just mean. There is no more simple joy than licking that butter/sugar concoction that sticks to the beaters. When my boys are home, it is a sign of my overwhelming love that I hand over the beaters to them to enjoy. But, if I am alone, the pleasure is all mine!

The entire experience of cookie making (and eating) makes me happy.  Honestly, it is one of the simple pleasures in life.  Unfortunately, cookies don’t use a single thing from the garden, so they fail completely in that respect.  Sometimes, however, you have to look beyond the practicality of things.  Cookies are just an absolute good.