There are certain things I love about Christmas and certain things that can sometimes get under my skin during the season. Lets start with the bad, shall we?
Things That Sometimes Slightly Annoy Me About the Christmas Season:
- Crowds.
- Tourists.
- Traffic.
- Annoying commercials (seriously, Gap, if I see that commercial that says "Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, Go Kwanzaa, Go Solstice!" one more time, I'm going to put my tree through the TV).
This I LOVE About Christmas:
- Listening to Christmas music (starting in September).
- Decorating my apartment.
- Watching Christmas movies, especially Scrooged, Elf, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
- The Christmas Spirit. I love that everyone is so happy and giving.
- COOKIES. Endless amounts of cookies.
So now that Christmas season is upon us, I'm in cookie mode. And I'm focusing on the number 1 cookie of the season (in my opinion): The chocolate chip cookie.
Is it too late to jump on the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe bandwagon?
That would be one tasty bandwagon to be on. I can see it now (cue harps and wavy transitional lines to take you into my dream world):
Me, surrounded by the scent of buttery, toffee-flavored cookies with large, slightly melted, creamy dark chocolate disks. The ride is bumpy, there is a chill in the air, and snow is falling, but I don't notice. Because I am biting through the crisp edges to reach the soft, chewy center of the cookie. A hint of salt comes through, a nice surprise that startles my expectation for the flavors of the well-known cookie. The scent of butter and chocolate wafts through the air as I ride past an ocean of chocolate milk. Jaques Torres himself comes out to greet me with more chocolate confections and says something in French that I cannot understand, but it sounds like "Mmm. Cookies." Santa Claus flies into the scene with his reindeer and tries to snatch a cookie from my wagon, but I tomahawk chop him light lightning. "Sorry, Santa. I say. You'll have to wait for Christmas for your turn."
And then I wonder why I only receive coal in my stocking that year. But it was worth it for these cookies. Perfection in a cookie whose flavor develops deeper with every hour the dough is left in the fridge. Instead of conventional all-purpose flour, cake flour and bread flour add a nice lift to the weight of the cookie. Sea salt adds a nice finish to the deep toffee flavor of the cookie. And of course, lots and lots of high quality chocolate take this cookie from "good" to "oooooohhh".
It is so worth the wait. And the weight. And the coal in your stocking.
Click here for the recipe.