Dough or Crumbs

We all begin in a mixing bowl. As a species we also share some main ingredients and processes. Today we are making cookies.

Chocolate chip cookies. Delicious, easy, and various, yet common. Every baker has their own recipe and secrets. Every cookie-eating person has their own favorite and indulgence.

Each ingredient goes into the bowl as an individual part. Once all the flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and chips mix together, the body of the cookie takes shape.  The dough looks common and the average eye can’t see the flour from the baking soda. But we know it’s there.

Granted, your recipe may call for cocoa powder or walnuts and it looks different than mine. If you precisely measured each part of your mixture, and I only eyeballed mine, they may taste and bake different also. But that is part of what makes each dough its own entity and each of us an individual.

For full and shapely cookies, the dough should set in the fridge for a few hours. During this time, the flavors meld and the young cookies are easier to work. Dough at room temperature makes for dull, sticky, tasteless (except for the chocolate part) cookies.

Some people choose to stop here. Cookie dough is a sweet treat. Some can’t get enough; they want it to last and not become a full baked cookie. The craving and temptation overwhelms.

A scoop from the bowl disintegrates in your mouth. Sugar granules rub between your tongue and roof of your mouth while the chocolate chip crunches between your teeth. Before you can even swallow the delicacy is gone.

Those of us who choose the other path and want to see our  work through, line the cookie pans. Once the dough is ready, the oven heats up. The heat melts and dries out the primed cookie dough.

Fresh from the oven a handful of minutes later, the gooey cookies are transferred to a cooling rack. If not done right, this process can be just as messy as mixing the dough. Sometimes the chips like to stick to the pan burnt on, and the crisp edges may break on the rack.

Whether grabbed straight from the rack, or from a jar days later, the delectable cookie disappears into someone’s mouth. Most of it at least.  A cold glass of milk washes it down.

Evidence is always left behind a good cookie. Melted chocolate on the face and fingers waits to be licked or wiped. Crumbs fall to the ground unnoticed.

And in the end, all that’s left of us are the crumbs.