9/16/09: NEW UPDATE: Alex Ortiz (photographer) and I are putting together a step-by-step, photo-illustrated chocolate chip cookie (CCC) making tutorial.  Yes, they are simple, but there's something satisfying about doing a simple task perfectly.  Your friends/family will agree when they eat your perfect CCCs.

9/6/09

I have pursued the perfect chocolate chip cookie for the last 20 years.  Along the way I've made tens of thousands of cookies, tested scores of recipes, and sampled more cookies than is probably good for me.  And I will gladly share with you the techniques, knowhow, and recipe that you need to make the best cookie you will ever taste.

If you learn and follow these techniques, I guarantee that yours will be the first empty platter at the next potluck.  Children will congregate at your house after school.  Church will let let out early on days that you have snack duty.  And you just might find yourself making new friends, scoring that big promotion, and spreading happiness wherever you and your delectable cookies choose to go.

Hyperbole?  Perhaps.  But consider this:

• Chocolate Chip is the most popular cookie in America (seven billion eaten last year alone).  Over half of home-baked cookies are chocolate chip.  If you had to pick one dish to perfect, this is it.

• Unlike cakes or pies, cookies are durable, portable, and individually sized.  They don't need to be refrigerated or cut up.  They don't need to be put on plates and served with ice cream.

• Giving someone else homemade food is one of the most sincere and kindly gestures you can make.  Have you ever been welcomed to a new neighborhood with a homemade cake?  Does Grandma ever send you a care package of brownies?  Let's face it: homemade food is not just flour and eggs.  There's love in there.  Every made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookie is a token of friendship and affection.

• Eating together inspires companionship, relaxation, and friendliness.  In fact, many historians point to cooking as the spark for civilization.  The need to come together and jointly prepare food socialized humans who might otherwise have eaten nuts and berries alone.

Know Your Ingredients

FATS - What are they?  What do they do?  How can I choose the right one?

Gluten: The Grandaddy of Texture

Sugars and Other Sweeteners- What's the difference between brown and white?