chocolate chip cookies

My mum made chocolate chip cookies as a semi-profession, and so of course I will probably never use any recipe but hers - there's really no need. Hers were always thick and cakelike, but not dry - they were airy and pleasant to eat. You definitely would call them a cookie and not a biscuit. She had the timing perfect and they were never burned - she was very methodical and always working with the same equipment, not like us renters who have to move on just as we're figuring out the temperament of the oven that happens to us.

I've been making them since I left home, but I tend to modify the recipe as I've got more of a taste for flat, buttery, chewier cookies. I use real butter also, unsalted, a 250 g block of it (about a cup). I also use much less flour than she does - 2 cups, maybe a little more, but that's the thing you have to tailor very specifically to yourself. I prefer brown to white sugar so sometimes I only use brown. I also experiment with combinations of the two and find that 2 cups total is too much for me, so it's usually more like 1 1/2.

When I bake them I try to brown them a bit more, which isn't hard since they're so full of butter, and I go overboard on the chocolate chips because that tastes good to me. Or I do half the batch with a reasonable amount and then add a bunch extra for the last dozen. I also find that they are better as large cookies - ones you'd share or eat over a whole day - maybe 3 or 4 inches in diameter. That way they get crispy on the periphery and chewy in the centre, which gives you all of the textures you want. When you've got a small cookie you get a more uniform consistency, and I just want some heterogeneity.

I share them with everyone I can think of. They are the sort of thing that, unlike a slice of cake or a tart, travel well and can be passed from one hand to another. When I moved away from home at 18 my mum used to send them to me express post and they'd still be good on the other coast.

I can't bring myself to reprint her recipe in any other form than the original, so I have not listed my bastardisations - you'll have to scan the text above for them or, better yet, just figure out what sounds best to you and try it. After the first batch you'll know which way to go to get what you want.


Faukes Family Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oven at 350 F, 185 C, or gas mark 4 (knock of 15 degrees for fan-assisted, those horrible things)

Combine:
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup margarine (softened)
- 1/3 cup Crisco

Blend these together until smooth, whether you're strictly manual, pedal-powered, or electrically labour-saving in your method of creaming things. Assemble your dry ingredients and sift them together:

- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda (bicarb soda, sodium bicarbonate)
- 3 1/2 cups flour

and turn these into the wet ingredients until it's all absorbed.

Dump in 1 packet or more of your chocolate chips of choice and stir to distribute. Spoon them onto a cookie sheet and place in heated oven for 12 minutes. Sell them to your friends and their friends and the ladies at the bank, and then use the money to buy your kids' Christmas presents.