Someone forwarded me this article on chocolate chip cookies, and I read it with a great deal of interest – did letting the batter rest for 36 hours make a flavor difference? So I dutifully made a batch of cookies, following their recipe – minus the expensive "bittersweet chocolate discs" because I don’t live anywhere where I can buy those and also because I am cheap. Instead I did a housemix of all of the chocolate chips we had in the house, some butterscotch chips AND some M&Ms. But I did sprinkle a few of the cookies with a bit of sea salt, as called for, and did three test batches – one right away, one 24 hours later and one 36 hours later.
Ah, Science.
With my older kids and my parents as testers, we tried out all three batches. And you know, it’s really kind of hard for chocolate chip cookies hot from the oven to be disappointing – they’re just a pleasing thing. The sea salt cookies were not a big hit ("What is the matter with my cookie?" – The Boy), although I think that with a better chocolate it would make more sense. So the first, immediate batch was a general crowd pleaser.
This is it – the one picture I was able to take before my camera’s batteries died. DOH!
The second batch – the 24 hour one – was also a hit and they DID have a slightly deeper flavour. Obligingly enough, the 36 hour batch WAS the best, but I was a bit tired of trying out chocolate chip cookies by that time. I don’t know if the difference was profound enough for me to suggest refrigerating your chocolate chip cookie dough for 36 hours, because at MY house, when I make cookies, it is because we want cookies RIGHT NOW. Should you want to make Superior Cookies, though….
I also made some zucchini bread recently, which was fine, and many many loaves of soft white gluten free bread. I found this recipe and have had consistently great, Baby-pleasing results, which is nice.
I love, LOVE that tray the bread is on. So ugly!
This is not normally a big baking time of year for me – it’s hot! we’re busy! This summer is cold and wet and grey and most days find me baking something, in between taking The Baby to the beach in SWEATERS:
Isn’t THAT summery? Yeah. Hence all the baking and chocolate chip cookie testing, the oven practically the only warm thing for miles around.
All of that cold summer stuff gathered up in my heart and by yesterday afternoon I had HAD it. So I went for a walk with a friend, The Baby screaming "MAMA DON’T GO!" very dramatically at the door since I never go anywhere without her. I was gone for a while (my friend told me a very exciting story about nearly getting eaten by a bear – thrilling!) and when I got home, my family was nowhere in sight. It was a sudden absence, not being there when I expected to come home to our house full of their noise, barreling out the door to see me. I rounded the house, the wind erasing all other noise, rounded the corner of the yard – and there they were, suddenly, having a parade in the golden, cold sunlight, all of their faces turning to greet me and the sudden warmth rising up, this instant and radiant joy. Summer.