Personal Narrative Essay: How To Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
It is a tradition for my family to gather on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts and sweets. In 2017, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies, because I thought that the recipe was easy and that I would not need much time to bake them. I opened the door to my pantry and grabbed my ingredients, but something was missing; I could not find any baking powder or vanilla. I knew that there were many elements when it comes to baking, so I thought that missing two would not make much of a difference. I continued to follow a recipe that I found on the back of a chocolate chip bag, disregarding the cupboard filled with family recipes. I carelessly combined the ingredients and tossed the dough in the oven. I checked on the cookies a few minutes later and they were in an odd shape. The edges had spread out, but the center was stuck in a dense, disproportional ball. I was hopeful that they would taste good at least, so I bit into one of them. The second my tongue tapped the edge of the cookie, I could tell that the flavor was off. The texture was similar to sand and it reminded me of what I imagine a dog biscuit would taste like. There was no way that I was going to serve these to people! I checked the clock and it was almost time to go. There was no way I had the time or ingredients to make another batch, so I left my house empty handed. When following a recipe, each step has a purpose and skipping a step will alter the ending product.
First of all, being prepared is incredibly important, so before any baking can occur, all ingredients must be gathered. I searched through our baking cabinet to ensure I had all necessary ingredients. In my home, this cabinet held spices, baking materials (flour, sugar, salt, etc), pans, and anything else that my little siblings decided to toss into there. I slowly opened the cabinet door, hopeful that nothing would tumble out. Sure enough, a container flew off the shelf and into the ground. I screwed the cap off to reveal a white powder with the consistency of powdered sugar. I dipped my finger into the powder and pressed it against my tongue. The lack of sweetness was certainly a giveaway that this was not powdered sugar. It finally clicked that the mystery substance was cornstarch. My dad once told me that my aunt makes the best chocolate chip cookies, and her secret recipe is a teaspoon of cornstarch. I thought that this time I would add cornstarch to make my cookies even better.
Next, setting myself up for success is important, so I must do this by thinking ahead. I prepared myself for a later step in the process by setting my oven to three hundred fifty degrees to guarantee that the oven would be fully preheated when it was time to bake the cookies. Now it was time to start combining the ingredients. First, I added the sugar and butter to a bowl and used the electric hand-held mixer to beat them together. The white and brown sugar determine the color of the cookie. I use equal amounts of each, creating a light brown batter which would then turn into the perfect golden-brown cookie in the end. Then, I beat in two eggs, one at a time. I crack each egg with extreme caution to avoid having to fish any eggshells out of my batter.
Now I recalled my friends and family’s techniques for the next few steps, which I have integrated into my baking to create the best possible outcome. I measured a teaspoon of vanilla to add flavor to the batter. My grandpa taught me that the cap on a vanilla bottle can be used to measure a teaspoon, so I held the cap over the bowl and slowly poured the vanilla extract in. Once the vanilla was about to spill out of the cap I tipped it upside down, splashing it against the batter, and up the side of the bowl. I grabbed my mixer, switched the setting to medium, and rotated my wrist around the bowl in a circular motion. I tested the consistency by stopping the mixer and lifting it up to make sure that the batter dripped off the whisks. My grandmother taught me to scrape off the excess product in a measuring cup with a knife to help ensure accuracy when measuring the dry ingredients. So, at this time, I grabbed a butter knife, and my favorite measuring cups, that my family had owned for years. I scooped up the flour, baking powder, salt, and cornstarch and placed them into their own bowl. I took the knife and swirled it around the bowl to mix the ingredients together.
The next part was always my least favorite, because it required a bit of patience. Patience is key in baking, because attempting to be quick will cause errors and alter the ending product. I grabbed the bowl with the flour mixture and poured a small amount into the bowl with the batter. No matter how tempting it was, I could not pour the whole bowl of flour into the batter or it would explode, creating a kitchen covered in white dust that I would have to clean up. Pour, stir, pour, stir, over and over until the dry ingredients have been fully integrated with the wet ones.
Once I saw that the batter had finally turned to dough, I grabbed one package of semi sweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips and poured half into the dough. My dad’s favorite chocolate brand is Ghirardelli and always insisted that we had at least one bag of their chocolate chips in the house at all times. I used a spatula to incorporate the chocolate into the dough, because a mixer would absorb too much dough at this point, not properly mixing it.
The final steps in this process seemed the most simple, yet there was so much room for error. I sprayed my pan with an oil spray, grabbed the ice cream scooper, and began scooping balls of cookie dough onto the pan. This helped the sizes of the dough balls remain consistent when scooping, so in the oven they all bake the same. Each ball was spaced four inches from another to prevent the cookies from combining with each other. I placed my cookies in the oven and set a timer for thirteen minutes; although I checked the cookies every 5 minutes to ensure they were not too crispy. I finally pulled my cookies out of the oven to discover the perfect golden brown treat. The smell dispersed throughout the house, so I could not escape the relentless desire to eat each cookie. I had to hold myself back by reminding myself of the dreadful feeling I get in my stomach after eating just one too many.
In the end I was extremely proud to watch each of my family members bite into the delicate pastry that I had worked so hard on. The patience, precision, and preparation had all paid off. Baking chocolate chip cookies seems extremely simple to many people, but the tedious steps require precision to achieve perfection.
