Esu Mane told me to post my Process Analysis Essay that I wrote for AP Language and Composition last night... Here it is...
On Baking Perfectly Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies
The first time I made chocolate chip cookies by myself, they came out very much like hockey pucks – flat and round, rock hard, black, and not appetizing in the least. For a while after that my mom was the only one who made chocolate chip cookies or any cookies for that matter. After a while, I decided to try again. This time, the cookies were perfect. I had made the ultimate chocolate chip cookies. Nowadays in my house, I’m the only one allowed to bake at all. My mom loves and hates me baking because she doesn’t have to do it any more but I always end up making quite the mess. Since that fateful day of burning the chocolate chip cookies, I have made many wonderful batches as well as some not-so-wonderful batches. Baking is a tricky business, but there are some good tricks to know when you desire to make perfectly gooey chocolate chip cookies.
Preheat your oven to three hundred and seventy-five degrees (375 degrees F) and gather all of the ingredients before you start baking. Make sure that there are one or two racks in or near the middle of the oven. The gathering of ingredients is an extremely important step in making the best chocolate chip cookies. Always, always, always check your pantry and refrigerator for the ingredients to be sure you have them and enough of them. The ingredients and amounts needed to make chocolate chip cookies are two and one quarter (2 ¼) cups of all-purpose flour, one (1) teaspoon of baking soda, one (1) teaspoon of salt, one (1) cup (or two [2] sticks) of softened butter, three quarters (3/4) of a cup of granulated sugar, three quarters (3/4) of a cup of packed brown sugar, one (1) teaspoon of vanilla extract, two (2) large eggs, two (2) cups (or one twelve ounce [12-oz.] package) of semi-sweet or milk chocolate morsels, and one (1) cup of chopped nuts if desired.
A note about these ingredients: the small amount of salt contrasts with the high sugar content in the cookies and sharpens the flavors, always remove the butter first when gathering ingredients so that it has time to soften, high quality vanilla makes for better tasting cookies but any brand is fine, milk chocolate morsels taste the best, and nuts are an optional and sometimes needed addition to these already delicious cookies.
Mix dry and wet ingredients separately and combine slowly. At this stage in perfect cookie development, all of your ingredients should be out and ready to go for easy mixing. Now, you may want to pile everything into one bowl and go at it with the mixing, but this is the completely incorrect way to do this. What you have to do is combine the dry ingredients (salt, flour, and baking soda) in a small bowl and mix the wet ingredients (sugars, butter, and vanilla) in another bowl. Don’t add the eggs until you’ve mixed the butter, sugars, and vanilla together. Then add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after adding each egg. Now, you must slowly add in the dry ingredients. Add them in small batches. The whole bowl of dry ingredients should take between three and four mix-ins. The dough will get stiffer with each addition so be sure to mix it thoroughly even after your arm becomes exhausted.
Roll one-inch balls of dough between your hands and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. This is the part where you get to have some fun! Warning: your hands will get a bit messy. Take a chunk of dough from the bowl and roll it between your hands like you were making circles against the palm of your left hand with your right one. Place the completed ball of dough onto a baking sheet and repeat the procedure with the remainder of the dough. Do this in multiple batches if you can’t fit all of the dough onto one baking sheet. Be sure to space the dough balls about one to one and a half (1- 1 ½) inches apart as the cookies will flatten and spread out.
Bake the cookies for nine to eleven (9-11) minutes and let them cool after they are done in the oven. Place the cookies in the oven on the center rack to bake for nine to eleven minutes. Although I have specified a time length for the cookies to bake, there can be some discrepancies between ovens. My oven for example is a convection oven and can bake these cookies in about six or seven minutes. Because of these discrepancies, you really have to bake with your nose. Usually when you can smell a baked good it is very close to done.
An important reminder: stay with your cookies at all times! Never, ever leave the kitchen when baking. Even when there is a timer set, if you are out of the room when it goes off you may not hear it and that could quickly become a fire hazard.
When allowing the cookies to cool, remove them from the baking sheet (after a few minutes so they can to set up and won’t fall apart when you try to move them) and place them on a cooling rack or, if you don’t have a cooling rack, allow them to cool a bit longer on the baking sheet and them move them to a plate to finish cooling.
Enjoy a cookie or two while they are still warm from the oven with an ice-cold glass of milk. Unless of course you’re, lactose intolerant, in which case have an ice-cold glass of soy or almond milk with your perfectly gooey chocolate chip cookies.
Baking can be an easy thing to do, but it can be just as easy to mess up, as my first attempt at making cookies shows. There was another instance where I added all of the ingredients into one bowl and had to dump the entire batch because of that simple mistake. Another time, I baked the cookies for a couple minutes too long and they turned into hard chocolate chip cookies, which can be good sometimes but disappointing when you were expecting soft and chewy ones. These failures are just as important as the times you succeed in making cookies. The failures teach you what not to do when making cookies and when you succeed, you learn what you should do. Knowing what not to do is equally as important as knowing what to do.
Making cookies is about more than just eating delicious, sugary treats. Baking cookies is about caring for others and making them smile. Something as simple as a cookie can change someone’s day. Eating a yummy, warm, chocolaty cookie will make your heart melt along with the hearts of others. Be sure to share the love and give friends and family, and even strangers, some of your amazing cookies. People simply want to be loved and giving delicious homemade cookies is a great way to show your love.
