The prompt for the paper was to tie yourself to an object, using history and facts of the object. The catch? There also had to be a deep meaning.... Most challenging part for sure. But with some help from my amazing father, I think I might have conveyed something that is sort of deep... oh who knows!!! Well, here is my paper. Chocolate chip Cookies.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Superman has his kryptonite. Achilles has his heel. Bill Clinton has his Monica Lewinsky. Eve has her apple. David has his Bathsheba. Sampson has his Delilah. Werewolves have their silver bullets. And I? I have chocolate chip cookies.
In my life, nothing compares to the scent nor the taste, the feel nor the sight, of a warm, fresh, gooey homemade chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven. The smell, tantalizing. I see it; that cookie, crisp at the edges, soft in the middle. The angel on one shoulder whispers, “Lauren, you know you are trying that new diet. You have worked so hard and done so well this week, don’t let that THAT little thing ruin you.” Then comes the shouting from the other shoulder, that mischievous voice I know so well, “Go for it, girl. You’ve earned it. Take a deep draft of the sweet soothing smell. You know how it will melt once it hits your tongue, the oozing chocolate, the sweet and sugary butter crunch all around. It will make you very happy. Why would you not eat it?” I bite into the cookie. Yep, the little devil was right, totally worth it.
It’s hard to believe the creation of something this “powerful” was an accident. Bakers back in the 18th century would bake a small amount of cake batter in order to test the temperature of the oven (Mann). Instead of wasting the batter, it was baked again along with the larger cake, and would come out crispy. These little test cakes were called "koekje", meaning "little cake" in Dutch (Davidson 212).
Chocolate chip cookies are part of my “weakly” routine. It is a family tradition on Sunday to make chocolate chip cookies after dinner. When I arrive home after my Sunday walk, I smell them, those delightful creatures ready for me to eat. As I enter, I see my step dad hard at work, placing the last of the dough on the cooking sheet. There is a fresh steaming batch on the counter right now, just released from the heat of the oven. I grab one quickly, not even minding as it slightly burns my hand. I place it in my mouth and let the sugar dissolve, the chocolate ooze, and a smile come quickly across my face. I look over and smile at my step dad. We share the same passion for our family’s Sunday night tradition; chocolate chip cookies just seem to bring us closer sometimes. It’s hard to grow close to someone who is not your own father but the warm cookie helps break down many barriers.
My hero, Ruth Wakefield, is credited with the creation of the “chocolate chip” cookie. Ruth Wakefield graduated from the Framingham State Normal School and worked as a dietitian. She lectured on food for a while, then, with her husband, bought a tourist lodge called the Toll House Inn. She created the recipes for the meals served to the guests at the Inn. She became notorious for her delicious deserts. One of her very favorite recipes to make was “butter drop do” cookies, in which she used the unique ingredient of baker’s chocolate. One night when she was making the butter drop do cookies, she realized she had no more baker’s chocolate. She decided to substitute the missing ingredient with a cut up bar of semi-sweet chocolate. Ruth thought the chocolate would melt completely, but to a lovely surprise, the small pieces only softened (Bellis). Thus was born, the powerful chocolate chip cookie.
It’s another Sunday, chocolate chip cookie day for the family. It is my turn to bake the cookies for the day. I neatly place them on the sheet and wait for them to rise in the oven. Soon I smell the cookies. As soon as the timer begins to buzz, I approach to retrieve the latest batch of heaven. As I enter the kitchen, my mom looks over and tells me to run a plate over to the neighbors before I eat a cookie. Apparently, while we were on vacation, the man across the street plowed the snow from all our sidewalks and driveways. Our driveway is pretty long and quite a feat to plow. We also have a lengthy sidewalk surrounding the outside of our home. What a lucky man, a whole plate of the purest goodness in the world for only four hours of work. I run the plate down the street as fast as I can, trying to get back home before the rest of the waiting cookies cool. When I reach the neighbor’s home, the family smiles and takes the plate from me. I can hear the little kids asking to eat the cookies as the door closes. I run home and burst through the doors to grab my chocolate chip cookie. As the cookie hits my mouth, I not only taste it, but feel it. Something is very wrong. I spit the cookie out, appalled at the taste. “What happened?” I ask my dad. Turns out I used salt instead of sugar. Why couldn’t my mistake be as good as Ruth’s? And those poor neighbors who have to suffer in my blunder. Probably won’t see any volunteer snow plowing for a while.
I know I should go down and tell them what happened. I wonder what they will say when they taste them. I hid my face when I saw them in the street the next day. To my surprise, they never said anything about the bitter cookies. Could it be that the gesture of giving chocolate chip cookies overshadows all mistakes?
Another thing that makes chocolate chip cookies so wonderful is the cookie dough. This treat is even irresistible before it is cooked. Most are told never to eat cookie dough because raw eggs may contain the bacterium called Salmonella enteric. This disease can cause sickness, and perhaps even death. Despite all these warnings, because of the common weakness for chocolate chip cookies, cookie dough eating is still rampant in North America. Does cookie dough really cause these widespread poisoning deaths? According to a CDC study, the risk of being killed by baking is negligible. Only about 70 Americans died of Salmonella from raw eggs in the year 2000, and they expect those numbers to stay around the same in years to come (Schroeder).
Yet another Sunday, I find myself in the kitchen while cookies are baking. Patience, patience, patience. I can hear my mother saying these words to my brother and me as we wait for the chocolate chip cookies to bake. I stand strategically between the bowl and my mom so my brother can sneak a quick sample of the unbaked cookies. The dough tastes so divine. Whether in my ice cream cone, or rolled in tiny balls covered in chocolate known as “Cookie Dough Bites”, cookie dough gets the best of me in any form. I love the crunch it makes as the uncooked sugar particles munch in my teeth. It is so hard to wait for my favorite treat to bake. It seems like torture to sit around while the aroma of those delicious morsels enters my nostrils. I have even seen my mom and step dad sneak a sample, being too impatient to wait for the cookies to come out. Seems no one wants to wait when it comes to chocolate chip cookies.
There is a new fad that has evolved around cookies. It is a diet known as the Hollywood Cookie Diet. The concept of the diet is to replace breakfast and lunch each with the special “diet” cookie. Testimonials rage on the website such as, “I lost 5 pounds in 3 days on the Hollywood Cookie Diet,” and “I lost 42 pounds! My doctor loves the Hollywood Cookie Diet” (Hollywood). Seems the whole world loves the idea of eating cookies to lose weight. Could it be possible that a company is making my weakness into something to help solve a worldwide problem of obesity? Maybe this weakness is much more widespread than I ever suspected.
So many agree, there is nothing like the sweet splotches of chocolaty goodness in a sea of butter soft crunch. The question comes to my mind, should I overcome this weakness, or let it overcome me? Maybe the knowledge of this “universal” weakness can be used as a strength. Is a plate of cookies really worth four hours of hard labor? If they are chocolate chip cookies, definitely. So if everyone loves chocolate chip cookies whether cooked or dough, and will risk even death to get a sample, why not use it to accomplish great things? Get roommates or siblings to do chores, calm the angry neighbors, get teachers to give A’s on papers? The possibilities are endless. And that’s how the cookie crumbles.
Works Cited
Bellis, Mary. History of Chocolate Chip Cookies - Ruth Wakefield. About.Com Inventors. Web. 17 Sept. 2010
Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1999. Print.
"Hollywood Cookie Diet." Hollywood Diet Store. Sunset Health Products, 2009. Web. 20 Sept. 2010.
Mann, Thea. The History Of Cookies. Life 1,2,3. Web. 17 Sept. 2010.
Schroeder, Carl M., et al. Estimate of illnesses from Salmonella Enteritidis in eggs. Center for
Disease Control and Prevention. 2000. Web. 17 Sept. 2010.
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