La petite biscotte

“Does the perfect cookie really exist?” A truly existential question if you ask me. A good cookie can save your life. No really. For instance, imagine you walk home through the rain, a car splashes you with water, your socks get all soggy and when you come home you realize that your neighbour decided to use the loudest electric screwdriver he could find to assemble his new IKEA shelf. Basically you got two possibilities: grab a frying pan and run after your neighbour (who is at least one foot taller than you) or follow the seducing smell of freshly baked cookies and forget all your troubles. See? A cookie can cheer you up in any situation!

So what are the characteristics of a perfect cookie? Well, that’s the problem: everyone likes their cookie differently To me the perfect cookie has a soft texture, a color between dark beige and light brown, a fragrant smell of butter and vanilla and once you decide to devour it, there must be the flavour of deep dark chocolate chips rounded up by the not too sweet aroma of brown sugar and the earthy flavour of chopped nuts.

Am I dreaming? Oh well, guess I am. Or not, because I think I managed to find a recipe that comes veeeeery close to what I call a perfect cookie. Try it out on your very own quest to the perfect cookie and tell me how it went!

(Recipe adapted from the authentic Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 pound (250g) butter
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 150g chocolate chips/morsels (or chopped chocolate - you can use white, milk or dark chocolate, or a mix)
• 125g chopped walnuts (you can use any nuts you like)
• 2 Tbsp of milk (only add this if you like your cookies soft)

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Preparation

1. Put the butter in a little saucepan and make it melt over low-medium temperature.
2. Meanwhile combine both flours, baking soda and salt.
3. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl.
4. Add eggs - one at a time - beating well after each addition.
5. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
6. Add the milk (if you are using any) and beat well.
7. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
8. Refrigerate the dough for an hour or two.
9. Preheat your oven at 180 °C approximately. Make a few tests with your oven to be sure you’ve got the optimal temperature. This strongly differs depending on the oven you got… and temperature matters a lot for cookies.
10. Lay out a baking tray with ungreased baking sheet.
11. Depending on which size you like your cookies to have, drop a spoonful of the dough on the baking sheet. Repeat until you got the sheet covered with several rows. Be careful to let about 10 cm of space around each cookie.
12. Bake for 9-11 minutes until they are golden brown. Let stand for about 2 minutes and remove them from the tray. If you make small cookies you’ll get about 4 batches out of this recipe.

Enjoy and if you have a “perfect” recipe for cookies, please share