Cookie Misadventures

Chocolate chip wafers or crackers, perhaps?

In preparation for a short weekend trip, I thought it would be nice to make some chocolate chip cookies for the road -- and to check something off of my to do list.  Armed with a bag of chocolate chips and a bottle of vanilla extract (which I searched for in five different grocery stores), I was prepared to follow the trusty recipe on the back of the bag... until I realized there was no brown sugar.  But, a new Swedish recipe presented itself that didn't need the kind of brown sugar that I'm familiar with (or the coveted vanilla extract) and instead called for lime.  Intrigued, I thought chocolate chip cookies with lime would be an interesting departure from the norm.

In hindsight, combining Swedish and American style chocolate chip cookies wasn't the best idea.  The recipe stated that the cookie dough should be put in the freezer for 30 minutes and then sliced off, like the nearly-ready slice and bake cookies that you buy from the grocery store that have little flavor.  But, I didn't want to freeze the dough and do the slice and bake style.  Instead, I wanted to make the cookies the only way I know how: use two teaspoons to form cookie blobs and plop them on the tray.

The goal was to create cookies that were big, soft and round, that easily break apart to reveal gooey chocolate goodness -- but with a Swedish-inspired twist of lime.  The result was less than desirable -- too large, too thin and not-at-all gooey.  The center of the cookies were more cake like, while the edges were crunchy like a cracker.  The lime flavor was distinct, and may have been tastier with a properly baked cookie.  Clearly, I am not a baker and there's a reason why recipes & directions exist.