Saturday, April 25, 2009

Recreating America: Baking Cookies in the ex-Yugo

Gaby and I, like all good roommates, have become partners in procrastination. This afternoon, we reached a high level when we decided to bake chocolate chip cookies, instead of buckling down and transcribing our interviews for our projects. I had received a bag of NestleTollhouse Semi-Sweet Morsels a few weeks ago - this is thanks to Kaitlyn, my American roommate, who is also an expert procrastinator.
Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels
So, she went out and bought some butter, flour, sugar and vanilla powder. Then we got down to business. We didn't have a mixing bowl, electric mixer, or a real oven (we only have the cooker, the toaster oven/hotplate thing), so we knew it was going to be an interesting batch of cookies from the start.

We started by softening 250g of butter (about a cup?) on the stove and mashing it with a fork - anything to make it a little bit softer, because we didn't have a mixer. We also didn't have measuring cups, so we eyeballed the rest of the measurements. Luckily, I am known as the Cookie Elf for a reason, so this wasn't too hard.
The Cookie Elf
The dough, even though we didn't use any brown sugar, looked pretty reasonable. We preheated the toaster oven for 175oC - 350oF??
The Cookie Dough

The Cooker with 1st Batch
How will they turn out?!? We had to turn up the temperature and bake each batch for about 15 minutes, because the oven didn't really heat up all the way. That cooker is the dinosaur of all kitchen appliances.
Voila!
They turned out great - maybe some of the best we've ever eaten. That could be because they really are the best (doubtful) or because they just remind us of home. Like the Girl Scout cookies in Sarajane's February care package or the McDonald's fries a few weeks ago - homemade chocolate chip cookies are America in your mouth.
Now, I should really go start that paper ... maybe after a few more cookies and a glass of mleko. Mleko? Oops, I meant milk. ;-)

1 comment:

Kaitlyn said...

awww, you think i'm an expert procrastinator? i'm flattered haha