get your chocoalte chip on

I have never been able to make chocolate chip cookies. Seriously - never, ever, ever! They always turn out runny around the outside, kind of wrinkly-ish at the edges, dark brown, just plain weird. Edible...not delicious...but seriously weird. I think I am most perplexed about it because I am a fairly decent baker. Not to brag on myself or anything, but I can follow a recipe. Directions do not phase me and I can clearly act in accordance with a written formula. So why have chocolate chip cookies - the most influential and noble of the cookies - eluded me for my entire baking career? I do not know. I have tried at least a half a dozen different recipes, from the ones off the back of the chocolate chip bags, ones in cookbooks, ones from friends, even my grandmother's famous "Never Fail, Can't Mess These up if You Try, Chocolate Chip Cookies." Well, that last part, about my grandma, isn't really true, but it might as well be. No baking luck - they all turn out the same - weird.

A while back, I bought a Bisquick book. I have cooked many, many things out of this book. The very first day I used it, I spilled a can of olive juice on it and now all the pages are wrinkly and stained a light shade of gray. Well, as I was cooking dinner tonight - Lemon Apricot Chicken - I discovered a page that I had not seen before in my pocket sized cookbook. It was stuck...to the page before it...with olive juice. Anyhoo, much to my delight AND dismay, it was a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies! I am delighted because I LOVE chocolate chip cookies and EVERYTHING I have made thus far out of my handy Bisquick cookbook has been a smashing success. To understand my dismay, see paragraph one.

I decided to take the challenge (well, it felt like a challenge - that page, flipping in the breeze, mocking me) and conquer this defiant confection. I followed the directions to a tee so that the failure that was certain to be could not be traced back to my inaccurate measurements...

On a side note, what is the deal with using butter that is softened? I mean really, if you keep it in the refrigerator, when you go to bake it is rock solid. And who has the foresight to take it out an hour before they are going to bake? Not me. When I decide to bake it is usually a spur of the moment decision, when I am having a major sugar craving. This baking adventure was the same ole story. Hard butter. At this point, I feel I have a couple of options. Set the butter on the counter, walk away and wait. My other tried and not-so-true method is to try to microwave the butter the perfect amount of time, so that softens it without turning in to a liquid-y, melted mess (why does it melt from the inside out?). Neither of these options seemed feasible this encounter since I was in a hurry, and I could not risk melting the butter as that would disqualify my accurate ingredient use. In a stroke of what can only be described as pure genius, I thought of a grand way to soften the butter. The dishwasher had just finished washing and was in the drying phase....wait for it...hot steam was pouring out the top of the washer, it was hot...can you see where this is going?...in a instant I opened the dishwasher door, pulled out the top shelf, set the two butter cubes on top of some glasses...oh yes, I did...and closed the door to let the butter soften in the warm confines of the clean, warm, steamy dishwasher....I told you - genius!

With softened butter in hand, I completed the cookie dough. It looked great and tasted even better. I scooped the cookies onto cookie sheets, placed them in the preheated oven, and said a small prayer, "God, please bless these cookies." As the minutes clicked by, I became nervous at the prospect of another baking failure...it's disheartening really. At the sound of the timer, I opened the oven and found the most amazing, fully plumped, golden brown cookies staring back at me. (Insert hard swallow and tear here.)

As Abby bit into the chocolate chip cookie, she said, "Mom, I am so glad you can finally make my favorite cookie ever. I have been waiting a looooong time for this."

These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made (not necessarily the best ever I have eaten...Des makes one mean chocolate chip cookie). I cannot believe how beautiful they are. They are perfect and look just like the picture in the cookbook - I would have taken a picture, but they were gone before I could get my camera in hand. I have no idea what made the difference. I don't know why they are not flat and wrinkly like all of my past creations of this sort. Perhaps it was the butter softening technique I used, maybe God had mercy on me this time...I just don't know. But, I am so thankful that I was able to finally give my daughter the gift she has been waiting for for so long!

Bake cookies. Have fun. Honor God.


Chocolate Chip Cookies - Bisquick Style

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
2 3/4 cups Bisquick
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6oz)
1/2 cup chopped nuts, if desired (oh, I desired)

1.Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg. Stir in Bisquick mix, chocolate chips, and nuts.
2. Onto ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded teaspoons (I used tablespoons), flatten slightly.
3. Bake about 10 minutes (I had to cook mine a little longer because they were bigger) or until golden brown. remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.