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We all experience cravings at some point. For some of us, nothing gets the job done quite like chocolate. It’s sweet and perfect on it’s own, but pairs so well with creamy, salty, toasty….almost any flavor. And when you want it, nothing else will do. I had one of these days last week. I was going through my typical daily routine of random distraction, not cleaning or doing the laundry as I should have. A favorite memory from my childhood flooded my brain- a cookie making party my mom had when I was about 5. She’d invited several of my cousins, and even let my brother (who was the family klutz at that time, not to mention, only three years old) help. I have a picture of all of us around the kitchen table in my scrapbook. It was a happy, messy day, as evidenced by all the flour covering the six of us. I think this was the first time I ever helped make Toll House cookies. And certainly the first time I had my first spoonful of chocolate chip cookie dough.

The memory sparked a craving, one that I hadn’t had since late December. I wanted fresh-from-the-oven, gooey, chocolaty cookies. Made from scratch.

I usually have all the common baking ingredients on hand- flour, sugar, eggs, etc. Even real butter. This day was no exception. All I needed were the chocolate chips. So I had to convince the Bribles that A) he wanted fresh cookies, too, and B) the only thing he needed to pick up that evening was a bag of milk chocolate chips. He happily obliged. And what he came home with was nothing short of shocking. The only request I had was they be milk chocolate. What came happily through my door was not at all what I expected. It was so much better. Ghiradelli. Not that I’m some chocolate snob- if it’s sweet, brown, sold in the candy or baking aisle, I’m all for it. My palate may not be that well refined, but I know what I like. And I can’t say I have one go-to recipe for these particular cookies. Usually, whatever’s on the back of the chip bag is good enough. They are, after all, just some combination of the same ingredients. This recipe didn’t seem like any exception. The dough tasted right. (Note: I love cookie dough…maybe more than the cookies, but raw egg strains the relationship.) I whipped out my melon baller, which I recommend for all drop cookies, and got to dropping dough. I think I actually hit the suggested yield according to the recipe, which was a first (so, if you are one who likes to bake cookies, get a melon baller!) Pop them in the oven, and eleven minutes later, they came out, the most perfectly shaped chocolate chip cookies I’d ever made. Once cooled sufficiently, about 5.8 seconds, I started the nibbling. It had the perfect chewy-crunchy texture. Of course, it was warm, and the chips just melt-y enough (they are actually larger than the chips I am used to) to make me need to sit down for a minute. Then I had another, then two more. Craving satisfied. But the best reaction of all came from Bribles, who upon first taste exclaimed “I think these are the best cookies I’ve ever tasted!” They were all gone the next night. Which was also when we decided the only logical step was to get more chips. Only this time, freeze the dough, so we can have fresh cookies when we want. Because you never know when the craving may hit.