I didn’t grow up eating mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Don’t get me wrong, my mom IS a fantastic baker. As a newlywed, her baking exploits had earned her the endearing nickname of “Pillsbury Doughboy.” But growing up in an Armenian household, mom’s homemade desserts were much more adult – hardly any chocolate, lots of flakey or choux doughs, gata and sweet breads, and lots of nuts. NUTS IN EVERYTHING. While all these sophisticated treats were delicious and labor intensive, perhaps the technical feat of them all was lost on a young grade school-aged child whose friends brought homemade cookies in their packed lunch everyday.
I had this one friend in second and third grade. My best friend, Michelle. We both loved dogs and always talked about the different breeds we would love to have. Well, we both loved dogs and EVERYONE loved her mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Everyday without fail, in her brown paper bag lunch, she always had a little sandwich bag filled with 3 or 4 of the most perfect chocolate chip cookies. Her mom made them fresh every day and Michelle was generous enough to share them with us during lunch. We didn’t even really have to trade her anything for them – there wasn’t really anything to compete with them and she knew that. At least a few times a week, I would get to snack on that morsel of perfection. As a fully grown adult many many years removed from grade school, I can still taste that exact cookie. Crisp edges, perfectly chewy centers, buttery and molassasy. A dream in food form. It’s amazing what kind of detail the mind clings to.
While Michelle was super willing to share mom’s cookies, it was common knowledge amongst the inner circle that the recipe was a heavily guarded secret. I remember around Christmastime, we had a class potluck where we had to bring a cherished family dish to class along with the recipe so we could make a class cookbook of all the recipes. Everyone was eagerly expecting Michelle’s mom’s cookies and the secret recipe at long last. To our dismay, we ended up with a plate of molasses cookies instead–still good, but did not live up to the hype of the coveted chocolate chip.
My own mom did actually make chocolate chip cookies many times growing up. They tasted good, but were always thick, bread-like, hard, and of course, full of nuts. For many years after elementary school, chocolate chip cookies were no longer a part of my life. Until I began to dabble in the kitchen myself and after many attempts, finally developed the perfect recipe that is so very reminiscent of Michelle’s mom’s cookies. I figured out the main two tricks that dramatically improved upon the homemade cookies my mom made. One: underbaking is absolutely essential. In my household, everything got cooked and baked to a well done state, for better or worse. In the case of cookies, it was most definitely worse. That explained the hard, dense mounds of very browned dough that passed as cookies. And number two: cooling the underbaked cookies on cooling racks further reinforces the perfect texture of this cookie. No more heavy and crunchy; now all perfectly crisp and chewy.
Crispy edges, check. Chewy centers, check. Buttery, and molassasy, check check. These are foolproof, consistently amazing and so easy to make that I can always have a batch in the cookie jar or freezer ready to go. While I didn’t grow up eating mom’s chocolate chip cookies, the buck stops with me. My kids will absolutely grow up with mom’s chocolate chip cookies. I like to think Michelle would be proud. ✅
