I love to cook and I sometimes imagine myself to be quite talented in a kitchen. Not today.
My cousin Gina and I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies today as a little New Year’s present for the staff at the restaurants where we work. Let’s just say I don’t think Gina and I will be attempting Iron Chef anytime soon.
I have actually never really managed to make chocolate chip cookies that both look and taste delicious. In actuality, they almost always taste good–how hard is it for butter and sugar to taste bad when combined–but getting them to appear fat and puffy has been a feat I’ve never really mastered.
Gina and I started off on the wrong foot considering I was following a recipe for Choc-Oat-Chip cookies and she was following a recipe for regular chocolate chip cookies. So our measurements were slightly off. Then When I went to cream the butter and sugar together I found my mixing bowl empty even though I’d just measured the sugar out. Gina had already combined the flour mixture with my sugar. So much for creaming. After we manage to get our measurements somewhat straightened out we manage to form a rather lumpy batter. 
Next, we pop our cookies onto the baking sheet and into the oven. Just as we start licking the beaters, Gina, the Montana native, then asks,”Did the recipe say anything about cooking at altitude?” We both look at each other feeling a little like idiots, obviously we should have taken the fact that we are cooking in the mountains into consideration. And the recipe is quite different for those above 5,200 ft. Pancakes it is then. Like I said butter and sugar pretty much always taste good together.
We decided to try a second time to see if we could make pretty cookies. Fortunately, round two went off with out a hitch, nice fluffy cookies. Funny enough, I think the pancakes taste better; I guess I like crispy cookies where the sugar is a bit caramelized.
