Sunday, October 3, 2010

Welcome back, taste buds!

Loss of appetite is one of the few positive aspects of being stricken with a nasty cold, for me, anyway. Instead of exercising self-control, (translation: self-deprivation), I get a break from my otherwise insatiable sugar cravings. Thankfully, I am finally feeling better, my taste buds are reawakened, and so all bets are off; there are cookies baking in the oven.

What kind of cookies, you ask? Peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies, of course... my favorite! Without any attempt to be humble, I’ll just say that I have pretty much perfected these over the last few years. It all comes down to the chocolate: Regular chocolate chips make regular chocolate chip cookies, but gourmet chocolate makes, you guessed it, gourmet cookies! I like to use Callebaut milk chocolate, which is especially convenient, since many grocery stores carry it in bulk. The other key ingredient is peanuts; they add a unique, crunchy texture and accentuate the peanut flavor.  
The problem? No, not tummy-aches, although that is a side effect, especially after putting back five or six of these babies, but I believe I made it quite clear that moderation is not one of my strengths. (These are virtual suicide for a junk-food-junkie like me.) No, the challenge I am facing is establishing a common thread for my recipes, a theme, if you will. So far, this aligning theme is still what I would call “half-baked”. At one point, I was actually throwing around ideas like ‘healthy’ and ‘balanced’. But if I’m to be honest, there’s no sense in trying to pretend that these cookies can be classified as health food. I am currently contemplating something along the lines of ‘quality ingredients’, or ‘cooking from scratch'. I wonder, is there a market for this?

2 comments:

  1. I ould see something like an Italian girls attempt at healthy cooking that is sometimes not so healthy. Like a healthy cookbook with a surprise peanut butter cookie recipe here and there. I don't know if there's a market for that but it would be a fun book. :)

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