Far too much information about my cookie addiction

My friend Ellen from work (I begin a lot of sentences in real life with "My friend Ellen from work" but I think that this might be the first time I have done that in my blog) is a fantastic human being. Seriously. Someone on her blog once commented: "Ellen, how America should be", and I think that is just about right. I want a tee shirt that says that. (It would be red because red is Ellen's signature color.)

ANYHOW, Ellen is the world's single greatest cookie baker (and trust me, I have tried a lot of cookies in my life. And if you don't believe me, take a look at the size of my bottom. That might remove any doubts you might have.) Ellen frequently bakes cookies and brings them into the office, much to the delight of her colleagues. My personal favorites: the chocolate chip cookies. Seriously, these are the best dang cookies you will ever taste. Each one has just the right amount of chips, the right amount of chewiness, and the bottoms are never even slightly darker than golden brown.

The other day, she took a stab at the New York Times recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and she brought them in today. Because that is what Ellen does: bakes and shares.(Check out her blog for a photo.) I tried the cookies out and felt that cookies that take over 24 hours to make deserved a serious taste test and review.

And this is what I have to say about the cookies as a cookie connoisseur:

• the cookies were a beautiful golden brown and looked like they could have come out of Mrs. Field's bakery; they also had some height to them


• the cookies were a nice texture, thicker than Ellen's traditional cookies, but not as chewy either


• at first, I wasn't a fan of the salt on the top, but after I had my coffee, I found that the salt was a nice compliment to the taste of the coffee


• the chocolate wasn't as sweet as I like. I know that darker chocolate is better for you, and it is being used more frequently now, but I like regular old chips in my cookies.

Ultimately, I think that these cookies are very good, but the fact that they took a lot of work and the batter had to chill a full 24 hours before they could be baked (no instant gratification here,) made me more inclined to favor Ellen's traditional chocolate chip cookies, which it turns out, ARE the Nestle's Toll House cookies. Hmmm, go figure. A classic, just like Ellen herself.