Quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 07-09-2008, 08:04 AM

Quote:

View: Perfection? Hint: It’s Warm and Has a Secret
Source: NYTimes
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Perfection? Hint: It’s Warm and Has a Secret
July 9, 2008
Perfection? Hint: It’s Warm and Has a Secret
By DAVID LEITE
TOO bad sainthood is not generally conferred on bakers, for there is one who is a possible candidate for canonization. She fulfills most of the requirements: (1) She’s dead. (2) She demonstrated heroic virtue. (3) Cults have been formed around her work. (4) Her invention is considered by many to be a miracle. The woman: Ruth Graves Wakefield. Her contribution to the world: the chocolate chip cookie.

One day in the 1930s, Mrs. Wakefield, an owner of the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Mass., 23 miles south of Boston, was busy baking in her kitchen. Depending on which of the many legends you subscribe to, the fateful moment may have happened when a bar of Nestlé semisweet chocolate jittered off a high shelf, fell into an industrial mixer below, and shattered, or when Mrs. Wakefield, in a brilliant move to make her Butter Drop Do cookies a bit sexier, chopped up a bar of chocolate and tossed in the pieces. Whether by accident or design, her Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies delighted her customers and became the culinary mother to an august lineage that almost 80 years later is still multiplying and, in some cases, mutating.

Made from nothing more than flour, eggs, sugar, leavening agents, salt, and chocolate, the cookie seems idiot-proof. After all, it’s simple enough that an eighth-grader can make it, right?

Not necessarily.

“If it was just a matter of a recipe,” said Hervé Poussot, a baker and an owner of Almondine, in Dumbo, Brooklyn, “we’d all be out of business. It’s what goes into the making of the cookie that makes the difference.” Like the omelet, which many believe to be the true test of a chef, the humble chocolate chip cookie is the baker’s crucible. So few ingredients, so many possibilities for disaster. What other explanation can there be for the wan versions and unfortunate misinterpretations that have popped up everywhere — eggless and sugarless renditions; cookies studded with carob, tofu and marijuana; whole-wheat alternatives; and the terribly misguided bacon-topped variety.

All this crossbreeding begs the question: Has anyone trumped Mrs. Wakefield? To find out, a journey began that included stops at some of New York City’s best bakeries as well as conversations with some doyens of baking. The result was a recipe for a consummate cookie, if you will: one built upon decades of acquired knowledge, experience and secrets; one that, quite frankly, would have Mrs. Wakefield worshipping at its altar.

The first visit was to the City Bakery, on West 18th Street, owned by Maury Rubin, who seems to get as much pleasure from talking about food as from eating it. When asked about the secret to his cookies, he said, “We bake them in small batches every hour so they’re always fresh.” He went on to say that the store sells more than 1,000 cookies a day.

Why, then, does almost everybody say they prefer homemade to bakery bought?

Mr. Rubin smiled, having already figured out the answer. “It’s the Warm Rule,” he said. “Even a bad cookie straight from the oven has its appeal.”

It’s an opinion expressed by every baker visited. Jacques Torres, who has three branches of his Jacques Torres Chocolate in Manhattan and Brooklyn, has a small warming tray set up near the register so customers can get their cookies soft and gooey, although he offers them at room temperature, too. Seth Berkowitz, the owner of Insomnia Cookies on East Eighth Street, goes so far as to have a display case filled with baskets spilling over with stand-in cookies; the real deals are sold straight from a holding oven.

Heather Sue Mercer, one of three sisters who own Ruby et Violette, which recently reopened on West 50th Street, believes that her bakery’s basic chocolate chip cookie “is definitely better warm,” but, she said, “I think some of our others are better served room temperature for the best flavor.” A warming oven allows all their cookies to be served either way.

Given the opportunity to riff on his cookie-making strategies, Mr. Rubin revealed two crucial elements home cooks can immediately add to their arsenal of baking tricks. First, he said, he lets the dough rest for 36 hours before baking.

Asked why, he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “They just taste better.”

“Oh, that Maury’s a sly one,” said Shirley O. Corriher, author of “CookWise” (William Morrow, 1997), a book about science in the kitchen. “What he’s doing is brilliant. He’s allowing the dough and other ingredients to fully soak up the liquid — in this case, the eggs — in order to get a drier and firmer dough, which bakes to a better consistency.”

A long hydration time is important because eggs, unlike, say, water, are gelatinous and slow-moving, she said. Making matters worse, the butter coats the flour, acting, she said, “like border patrol guards,” preventing the liquid from getting through to the dry ingredients. The extra time in the fridge dispatches that problem. Like the Warm Rule, hydration — from overnight, in Mr. Poussot’s case, to up to a few days for Mr. Torres — was a tactic shared by nearly every baker interviewed.

And by Ruth Wakefield, it turns out. “At Toll House, we chill this dough overnight,” she wrote in her “Toll House Cook Book” (Little, Brown, 1953). This crucial bit of information is left out of the version of her recipe that Nestlé printed on the back of its baking bars and, since in 1939, on bags of its chocolate morsels.

To put the technique to the test, one batch of the cookie dough recipe given here was allowed to rest in the refrigerator. After 12, 24, and 36 hours, a portion was baked, each time on the same sheet pan, lined with the same nonstick sheet in the same oven at the same temperature.

At 12 hours, the dough had become drier and the baked cookies had a pleasant, if not slightly pale, complexion. The 24-hour mark is where things started getting interesting. The cookies browned more evenly and looked like handsomer, more tanned older brothers of the younger batch. The biggest difference, though, was flavor. The second batch was richer, with more bass notes of caramel and hints of toffee.

Going the full distance seemed to have the greatest impact. At 36 hours, the dough was significantly drier than the 12-hour batch; it crumbled a bit when poked but held together well when shaped. These cookies baked up the most evenly and were a deeper shade of brown than their predecessors. Surprisingly, they had an even richer, more sophisticated taste, with stronger toffee hints and a definite brown sugar presence. At an informal tasting, made up of a panel of self-described chipper fanatics, these mature cookies won, hands down.

The second insight Mr. Rubin offered had to do with size. His cookies are six-inch affairs because he believes that their larger size allows for three distinct textures. “First there’s the crunchy outside inch or so,” he said. A nibble revealed a crackle to the bite and a distinct flavor of butter and caramel. “Then there’s the center, which is soft.” A bull’s-eye the size of a half-dollar yielded easily.

“But the real magic,” he added, “is the one-and-a-half-inch ring between them where the two textures and all the flavors mix.”

Testing once again bore out Mr. Rubin’s thesis, which might be called the Rule of Thirds. The 24-hour and, especially, the 36-hour cookies developed the ring Mr. Rubin enthusiastically described. The crisp edge gave way to a chewy circle, with a flavor similar to penuche fudge, surrounding a center as soft as that of the first batch. His theory on the impact of size on texture so delighted Ms. Corriher that she wanted to include it in her new book, “BakeWise” (Scribner, $40), due out in October.

Super-size cookies seem to be the 21st-century rage. Mr. Torres and Mr. Poussot sell cookies as large as Mr. Rubin’s. Levain Bakery, on West 74th Street, offers six-ounce, slightly underbaked behemoths that, while not adhering to Mr. Rubin’s Rule of Thirds — they’re too mounded for that — do have some crunch around the edges.

And what would a chocolate chip cookie be without the wallop of good chocolate? According to most of the bakers, only chocolate with at least 60 percent cacao content has the brio to transform the dough into the Hulk Hogan of cookies. Some, like Mr. Rubin and Mr. Torres, have their chocolate made exclusively for them. Others, including the Mercer sisters, use high-quality imported brands, like Callebaut or Valrhona, and shoot for a ratio of chocolate to dough of no less than 40 to 60.

Break apart a Torres cookie, and a curious thing happens. Inside aren’t chunks of chocolate, but rather thin, dark strata. “I use a couverture chocolate, because it melts beautifully,” he explained, something traditional chips don’t do. Couverture is a coating chocolate used, for instance, for covering truffles. To get his trademark layers, Mr. Torres has his chocolate, which is manufactured by the Belgium company Belcolade, made into quarter-size disks — easily five times the volume of a typical commercial chip. Because the disks are flat and melt superbly, the result, he said, is layers of chocolate and cookie in every bite.

Dorie Greenspan, author of several baking books including “Baking: From My Home to Yours” (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), was asked to fill in any blanks left by the master bakers during the quest for the ultimate cookie. Although unsure she could bring anything new to the party, she went through the usual checklist: read through the recipe first, make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature, use the best-quality ingredients you can find, don’t overmix. Then she hit upon something everyone else had missed, and some home bakers are nervous about: salt.

“You can’t underestimate the importance of salt in sweet baked goods,” she said. Salt, in the dough and sprinkled on top, adds dimension that can lift even a plebian cookie. To make the point, she referred to her recipe for Sablés Korova, a chocolate chocolate-chip cookie with a hefty pinch of fleur de sel, from her book “Paris Sweets” (Broadway Books, 2002). Five years ago, sea salt as a must-have ingredient and garnish for sweets wouldn’t have registered on the radar of many home bakers, but now it has become almost commonplace, in part because of Ms. Greenspan’s unwavering belief in its virtue.

After weeks of investigating, testing and retesting, the time had come to assemble a new archetypal cookie recipe, one to suit today’s tastes and to integrate what bakers have learned since that fateful day in Whitman, Mass. The recipe included here is adapted from Mr. Torres’s classic cookie, but relies on the discoveries and insights of the other bakers and authors. So, in effect, it’s all of theirs — the consummate chocolate chip cookie.

This creation, the offspring of some of baking’s top talent, truly bests Mrs. Wakefield’s. Doubt it? There’s only one way to find out.

Chocolate Chips Cookies Recipe by Jacques Torres click to show

Quote:

View: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: NYTimes
posted with the TFP thread generator

Chocolate Chip Cookies
July 9, 2008
Recipe
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Jacques Torres

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons

(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)

Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Note: Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods.

I'm no baker. I can't really do anything that requires exact measurements and putting into the oven. I like to peak too much, and seeing in through the window doesn't satisfy me. I need to see inside clearly.

But I never thought about the salt content of cookies. I know now after doing much food research that salt is an important product of cooking even if something is sweetened with sugars.

Willravel · 07-09-2008, 08:34 AM

Modal ontological cookie argument (based on the work of St. Anselm of Canterbury):
1. Imagine C, a perfect cookie.
2. C is, by definition, a confection than which nothing greater can be conceived (imagined).
3. Existence in reality is greater than existence in the mind.
4. C must exist in reality, if C did not then C would not be that which nothing greater can be conceived (imagined).

ratbastid · 07-09-2008, 09:03 AM

Ah, but Plato argued that there exists in the abstract a perfect and ideal cookie, greater than which it is impossible for any other cookie--real or otherwise--to be. While a recipe for this abstract ideal cookie may exist, it is impossible to make it into a "real" perfect cookie, for the process of actually mixing and baking translates the ideal into its inevitably imperfect physical form. While it may in fact be a very, very good cookie, its very temporality and transience differentiate it from the abstraction of fundamental and ideal cookieness.

snowy · 07-09-2008, 09:30 AM

One of the first things I learned to bake was a chocolate chip cookie using the Toll House recipe. We baked them constantly when I was younger--I come from a long line of bakers on my mother's side, and this was considered the introductory recipe, to learn the basics of baking. Our strategy usually involved making enough dough for a couple of batches--one we would bake straight off, and others we would bake later. Yes, the dough changes over time. I definitely prefer a chocolate chip cookie whose dough has had time to sit and chill--perhaps that is the beauty of the commercially-made Otis Spunkmeyer cookie; it spends a lot of time chilling.

To me, the perfect chocolate chip cookie is the one I'm eating. At that moment, as it melts in my mouth--it is cookie nirvana. Obviously I have some go-to cookies for cookie nirvana--a number of bakeries here in town make chocolate chip cookies beyond compare, and I do like my own a lot.

jewels · 07-09-2008, 02:21 PM

So many great chocolate chip cookies. So little time.

Salt is required in order to have crispocity in your cookie.

Cynthetiq · 07-09-2008, 02:27 PM

I didn't realize that it was part of the chemistry. I was astounded by the photo, those big crystals of salt are amazingly tempting!

snowy · 07-09-2008, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cynthetiq

I didn't realize that it was part of the chemistry. I was astounded by the photo, those big crystals of salt are amazingly tempting!

Salt does a couple things--it's first and foremost a flavor enhancer, regardless of what it's put in, even if it's sweet instead of savory. That's the beauty of salt. It also helps control the other chemical reactions going on.

I too am tempted to try the sea salt on cookie. Looks yummy.

little_tippler · 07-11-2008, 11:33 AM

salt in chocolate baked goods...gives it the extra tang.

Will be trying this recipe...with a few modifications sadly (some ingredients I can't get here!).

Will come back with news.

Miss Mango · 07-11-2008, 01:21 PM

Chocolate chip bacon cookies

Cynthetiq · 07-11-2008, 01:37 PM

really.. you can't just post that link and walk away with not a single photo of such description... I mean it's not like you saw bigfoot or something...

it looks and sounds oddly scrumptious.

girldetective · 07-11-2008, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Cynthetiq commented about bacon chocochip cooky : it looks and sounds oddly scrumptious.

There is a hipster hangout here called Cacao that sells bars of chocolate with bacon. mmm.

Charlatan · 07-11-2008, 03:48 PM

I have been playing with this recipe over the last little while with excellent results.

I usually let my dough rest for a few hours but am going to try the 36 route.

I will also add that salt is the key to a great tasting cookie. I've even added more to some recipes (with mixed results).

Quote:

Chocolate Chip Cookies a la Anna Olson

My secret ingredient is cornstarch to make chewy-centred cookies! If you want crispy cookies, omit the cornstarch and replace the baking soda with baking powder.
Ingredients:
Chocolate Chip Cookies

* 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 egg
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 2 tsp cornstarch
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 8 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into chunks

Directions:
Chocolate Chip Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.
3. Stir in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.
4. Drop by tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown around the edges.

To Assemble

1. Let cool slightly and enjoy.

girldetective · 07-11-2008, 04:12 PM

So I just finished cookies for my neighbor. The original Tollhouse recipe, with coconut and dried cherries added into the mix. Theyre really quite fab.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Shagg · 08-20-2008, 08:05 PM

I decided to gives these a try one night...

(I skipped the glaze)

The bacon was actually a pretty subtle flavor for the most part. I used maple cured bacon, so it had a sweeter flavor compared to a strong smoky bacon. If you went out of the way to savor the cookie and break down the flavors the mix of white, semi-sweet chocolate and bacon were easy to identify. The recipe also called for almond extract which really brought out an amaretto like aroma, very pronounced when mixing, quite a bit more subtle out of the oven. Overall, the pairing was very similar chocolate covered pretzels; a sweet and savory mix. The texture of the cookies was really nice as well, had a definite "chunk" factor to them which was a bit unexpected considering the lack of nuts. These were very rich cookies, but not overwhelmingly sweet.

I'm not gonna say everyone will love these cookies, seriously if you are Jewish and diabetic stay far away, but I think most people will enjoy them if they approach them with an open mind. Out of 10 people that tried them, the worst reaction I got was that they were just ok. Most of the responses were in the neighborhood of "fuck me these are pretty damn good."
-----Added 21/8/2008 at 12 : 11 : 32-----
I really do like the basic tollhouse recipe, but I do add an extra 1/4 cup of flour to it for a bit more body. Also tried the addition of kosher salt on top and really liked how it worked out.

Jetée · 08-20-2008, 08:14 PM

Short of extracicating and putting to practice the above recipes, I find that my standard for a "superb chocolate chip cookie" revolves around the familiar notion of the Entenmann's brand.

07-09-2008, 09:30 AM	#4 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	One of the first things I learned to bake was a chocolate chip cookie using the Toll House recipe. We baked them constantly when I was younger--I come from a long line of bakers on my mother's side, and this was considered the introductory recipe, to learn the basics of baking. Our strategy usually involved making enough dough for a couple of batches--one we would bake straight off, and others we would bake later. Yes, the dough changes over time. I definitely prefer a chocolate chip cookie whose dough has had time to sit and chill--perhaps that is the beauty of the commercially-made Otis Spunkmeyer cookie; it spends a lot of time chilling. To me, the perfect chocolate chip cookie is the one I'm eating. At that moment, as it melts in my mouth--it is cookie nirvana. Obviously I have some go-to cookies for cookie nirvana--a number of bakeries here in town make chocolate chip cookies beyond compare, and I do like my own a lot. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

07-09-2008, 02:21 PM	#5 (permalink)
jewels Eponymous Location: Central Central Florida	So many great chocolate chip cookies. So little time. Salt is required in order to have crispocity in your cookie. __________________ We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess. Mark Twain

07-09-2008, 02:27 PM	#6 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	I didn't realize that it was part of the chemistry. I was astounded by the photo, those big crystals of salt are amazingly tempting! __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

07-11-2008, 11:33 AM	#8 (permalink)
little_tippler Leaning against the -Sun- Super Moderator Location: on the other side	salt in chocolate baked goods...gives it the extra tang. Will be trying this recipe...with a few modifications sadly (some ingredients I can't get here!). Will come back with news. __________________ Whether we write or speak or do but look We are ever unapparent. What we are Cannot be transfused into word or book. Our soul from us is infinitely far. However much we give our thoughts the will To be our soul and gesture it abroad, Our hearts are incommunicable still. In what we show ourselves we are ignored. The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged By any skill of thought or trick of seeming. Unto our very selves we are abridged When we would utter to our thought our being. We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams, And each to each other dreams of others' dreams. Fernando Pessoa, 1918

07-11-2008, 01:37 PM	#10 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	really.. you can't just post that link and walk away with not a single photo of such description... I mean it's not like you saw bigfoot or something... it looks and sounds oddly scrumptious. __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

07-09-2008, 08:34 AM	#2 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	Modal ontological cookie argument (based on the work of St. Anselm of Canterbury): 1. Imagine C, a perfect cookie. 2. C is, by definition, a confection than which nothing greater can be conceived (imagined). 3. Existence in reality is greater than existence in the mind. 4. C must exist in reality, if C did not then C would not be that which nothing greater can be conceived (imagined).

07-09-2008, 09:03 AM	#3 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	Ah, but Plato argued that there exists in the abstract a perfect and ideal cookie, greater than which it is impossible for any other cookie--real or otherwise--to be. While a recipe for this abstract ideal cookie may exist, it is impossible to make it into a "real" perfect cookie, for the process of actually mixing and baking translates the ideal into its inevitably imperfect physical form. While it may in fact be a very, very good cookie, its very temporality and transience differentiate it from the abstraction of fundamental and ideal cookieness.

07-11-2008, 01:21 PM	#9 (permalink)
Miss Mango Psycho	Chocolate chip bacon cookies

07-11-2008, 04:12 PM	#13 (permalink)
girldetective sufferable	So I just finished cookies for my neighbor. The original Tollhouse recipe, with coconut and dried cherries added into the mix. Theyre really quite fab. Thanks for the inspiration. __________________ As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons...be cheerful; strive for happiness - Desiderata

08-20-2008, 08:05 PM	#14 (permalink)
Shagg What day is it? Location: Downey, CA	I decided to gives these a try one night... (I skipped the glaze) The bacon was actually a pretty subtle flavor for the most part. I used maple cured bacon, so it had a sweeter flavor compared to a strong smoky bacon. If you went out of the way to savor the cookie and break down the flavors the mix of white, semi-sweet chocolate and bacon were easy to identify. The recipe also called for almond extract which really brought out an amaretto like aroma, very pronounced when mixing, quite a bit more subtle out of the oven. Overall, the pairing was very similar chocolate covered pretzels; a sweet and savory mix. The texture of the cookies was really nice as well, had a definite "chunk" factor to them which was a bit unexpected considering the lack of nuts. These were very rich cookies, but not overwhelmingly sweet. I'm not gonna say everyone will love these cookies, seriously if you are Jewish and diabetic stay far away, but I think most people will enjoy them if they approach them with an open mind. Out of 10 people that tried them, the worst reaction I got was that they were just ok. Most of the responses were in the neighborhood of "fuck me these are pretty damn good." -----Added 21/8/2008 at 12 : 11 : 32----- I really do like the basic tollhouse recipe, but I do add an extra 1/4 cup of flour to it for a bit more body. Also tried the addition of kosher salt on top and really liked how it worked out. Last edited by Shagg; 08-20-2008 at 08:11 PM.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

08-20-2008, 08:14 PM	#15 (permalink)
Jetée The Reforms Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition	Short of extracicating and putting to practice the above recipes, I find that my standard for a "superb chocolate chip cookie" revolves around the familiar notion of the Entenmann's brand. __________________ As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi