If you give a mouse a cookie...

As you all know (if you actually read all my posts), 2 nights ago i had dinner at Katie's house and we made chocolate chip cookies. Inspired by our cookie making and remembering that I had all the exact same ingredients at home, i decided to make my own batch of cookies for some friends. So below i'll detail my cooking making, along with some helpful tips when making your own cookies.

the recipe I followed was the one on the back of the toll house cookie bag. I figured that they turned out well at katie's, so might as well repeat the success. The first thing I did in the morning was measure out all my ingredients and put them aside. When you're in a kitchen, this is a step called mis en place (meaning everything in its place, it's also a way to describe the organization of a kitchen and it's one of the first things you learn working in a pro kitchen). by measuring before hand, it makes the actual cooking part a whole lot easier, cause like in cooking shows, you just dump everything together and you don't have to stop at some point and measure whatever ingredient out. it also helps you keep track of what you've already measured, so at some point you're not standing there wondering if that was the second or third cup of flour you just poured into your batter (believe me, i've done this before), it lets you keep your hands clean, rather than getting batter all over your kitchen as you tried to figure out where you put the vanilla extract after the last time you used it and it forces you to actually read the recipe before attempting to make anything (also an important tip). I also left the butter out so it could soften at room temp.

when i got home that night, i got down to my cookie making. here is the butter after i creamed it with the sugar. it's important that the butter be at room temp, so it's nice and soft and will cream nicely.

next, i added in the eggs. as a general rule, when you're making cookies or cakes and you forget what order stuff is supposed to go in, just remembered that fats (butter, eggs, etc.) always go together first. then you add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, etc.). oh also, always scrape your bowl between adding ingredients. one of my firsts chefs always said that the sign of a good baker is if they scrape between adding ingredients. it just ensures that everything is properly incorporated and that you won't have a lump of butter or flour sittting at the bottom of your bowl.

speaking of which, here are the dry ingredients going in. see how much easier it is when you measure everything first?

and lastly, the choco chips and walnuts.

i spooned them all onto my pretty baking sheets, which i've had for months and never used. so i'm happy i got to use them this time around. and just to make sure they bake evenly, it's nice to flatten the mounds slightly with your fingers or the back of a spoon. then you'll get those perfect round cookies that you see on the package, rather than the lumpy (but still tasty ones). unfortunately, i forget to do this until the last pan, but oh well. they will tasted good.

here's the finished product. (the lumpy ones, i saved most of the pretty ones for my friends, which i put in plastic bags and tied with pretty little bows)
so in answer to the title of my post, if you give a mouse a cookie, then she'll end up eating three of them and lie there with a full tummy cursing herself for eating so many cookies. but hey, at least they were yummy cookies which i made all by myself.