Online devo: Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookie devotional

If you are a human with taste buds, chances are you like chocolate chip cookies. Not only are they undeniably delicious, they’re also deeply nostalgic. Many of you, I’m sure, remember baking cookies with your mom, your grandma, your children. Some of you were invested in the final product and a lot more of you were in it for the pre-baked cookie dough!

The truth is, everybody has a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. And none of them are exactly the same. I did a google search for “chocolate chip cookie recipe” and it gave me 132 million hits. That’s a LOT of cookies. I haven’t made 132 million types of chocolate chip cookies, but I have made an awful lot. I made cookies from mixes in college. I made them off the backs of chocolate chip packages when I was first married--I had no patience and unwittingly made a lot of mistakes. I just wanted a delicious chocolate chip cookie, darn it, and thought that all of my practice eating them should mean making them would be a breeze. So of course, each time I made them I did it slightly differently and made inconsistent mistakes...they tasted “OK”--but they weren’t what I was aiming for.

It wasn’t until I started to understand WHY each ingredient of a cookie is important--and that none are really optional--that I started to respect the process. People say that baking is a science, but there’s also an undeniable art in understanding what each ingredient contributes, the order to combine them, and how to play with quantities and flavors to achieve your desired result.

Understanding the why of each ingredient of a cookie is super similar to what I try to do as worship director at Pearce. A chocolate chip cookie is a lot more than chocolate chips. And a worship service is a lot more than the music. And while I’ll be the first to say that there is something uniquely emotive, powerful, and corporate about singing together; a worship service requires lots of different elements to truly reflect the breadth of a congregation, and the desires of our God. 

Our heavenly Father desires our praises through song, yes, but he also desires to speak to us through the reading and teaching of His Word, and to hear our prayers, to receive our sacrifices of time/talents/resources, to accept our confessions, to remind us of His Trinitarian presence through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s table. If you were able to join me last night for Worship Wednesday, we explored most of these elements together--and now you’re seeing how baking cookies fits in with this little lesson. :)

Everybody has a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe--and most people have a preferred type of worship service...we love what is familiar and homey and brings back lots of wonderful memories. My job, as baker and as worship director, is to explore the breadth and depth of the 132 million different ways to make cookies, or of crafting a worship service. Which combination of elements makes the most sense for this week/this season/this congregation? My challenge to you tonight is to continue to journey with me, and with us as a Pearce family, in understanding the “whys” of worship services. Why are we having a time of confession? Why do we do corporate scripture readings? Why do we have a benediction? Why did we sing that new song this week? The more we understand why, the more we can appreciate things that feel different and, at least initially, uncomfortable. 

Tonight I’m going to show you my current favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe--which I discovered 9 years into marriage. While we make these I want to explain the science--the “why” of each ingredient, so you understand a bit more of why these are superlative. Just like with my bread tutorial, I’ll post the recipe down below in the comments so you can copy or print for yourself.

So the first ingredients we need are butter and sugar. Please use real butter--it adds the best flavor and texture. We use room temperature butter, and this is really important. You need butter at a temperature that’s going to combine with the sugar to create lots of tiny air pockets. Cold butter isn’t malleable enough for this, and melted butter won’t give you a structured cookie. Pull a stick of butter out an hour before you’re ready to make your dough and it will be just right.

One of the secrets that makes this recipe great is the sugar. Or, rather, the sugars. We’re using three types here and each one is for a different purpose. We use brown sugar (use dark brown if you can) for moisture and a nice chew. We use white sugar for structure and browning. And we use a little turbinado sugar (or sugar in the raw) for texture. The turbinado sugar is really going to help create those air pockets in the dough, plus it adds just a hint of a crystalline texture in the dough that is quite special.

Cream your butter and sugars together for up to 5 minutes. Don’t skimp on the mixing here--remember--we’re incorporating air into our batter. 

While that’s going let’s mix our dry ingredients together. If you have a food scale I HIGHLY encourage you to use it when baking. If you don’t, take care when you measure your flour--it’s so easy to overdo it with flour and then your cookies get too cakey and dry. We’re aiming for a cookie that’s slightly crisp on the edges, but chewy and soft in the middle. Throw in some baking soda as your rising agent--this makes all the little air pockets you’ve beaten into your mix get bigger in the oven; and salt for flavor. Always, always, always use salt. 

OK, our butter and sugar is looking light and fluffy. We’re going to toss an egg in here (again, room temperature is best) and let that incorporate for a minute. Your egg helps with, obviously, moisture in your cookie, plus encourages structure through its added protein. Then we add 1 t of vanilla extract for rich flavor. 

Now you’re going to lower the speed of your mixer to low and add your dry ingredients. This is a key step--the more you beat your dry ingredients into your cookie batter the more you’re “kneading” your dough--this activates the gluten in your flour and your cookies will get really tough. I stop the mixer JUST before the white streaks disappear and then fold in the chocolate. Once that’s in the white streaks are gone.

This recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate. Some of you may not be dark chocolate fans and, as your sister in Christ, I’m kind of required to forgive you for that, difficult as it may be. I recommend using bars of chocolate over chocolate chips. Chocolate chips have emulsifiers in them that help them keep that iconic chip shape--which is nice, but melted pools of dark chocolate are really accessing the full power of the Holy Spirit. Chop up a few bars of your favorite type of chocolate and throw those in there. 

Once your dough has come together you’re going to throw it in the fridge and forget about it (good luck) for at least a few hours. The longer you can wait the better your cookie will taste as all those flavors and textures meld together. The flour will fully hydrate and...yeah, you’re just going to end up with a better final product.

When you’re ready to bake scoop out your cookies, roll them into balls and place on parchment or silicone-lined baking sheets. Here’s your final secret step. Take a little sea salt or, if you’re really feeling over the top, flake salt, and just dust the tops of your cookies. The crunch and hit of the salt with the chocolate and sweet dough...I can’t even.

Baking instructions are down below. My final cookie tip is, once you take those cookies out of the oven, give them a rap or two on the counter. It helps deflate the centers just a bit to even out the cookies and really show off those beautiful pools of chocolate.You’re welcome.