The dust has settled. It’s weird. My kitchen looks rather naked without its beautiful wood floors. It makes me uncomfortable; to see it like this…pulled apart at the seams.

Yesterday morning I knew this was the beginning of the end of my baking for a few weeks, at least in my own kitchen anyway. You know me, I will probably become a squatter in somebody else’s kitchen. I barely can breathe without baking.

My son had requested a sheet cookie instead of a cake for his seventeenth birthday party that day. Everyone eats cookies. It’s the truth.  Clean up after any party where a store-bought sheet cake was brought, and you will find plates and plates of nibbled on slices of cake, sugary frosting scraped off.  Think back…I am right, aren’t I?

But a ginormous, homemade chocolate chip cookie, oozing with Ghirardelli chocolate chips, golden brown to perfection, now THAT gets eaten…every last crumb.  Seconds get had, and fingers get licked with melty bits of chocolate stuck to them.  No need for ice cream. There’s nothing to cover up or make better.

Except right now, maybe a kitchen. It needs bandaids and a big hug. It is not getting made better or more beautiful. It was perfect just as it was. I remodeled it over 12 years ago, but it still looks looked fine, really great. Until the fridge leaked, grew its own mushroom underneath it (no I did NOT cook it up) and then, a week later, there was a leak in the bathroom which poured water onto the floor all day while we were at work.

Yeah, all that happened in two weeks and I still blogged. Aren’t you proud of me?  Or maybe it’s just an illness. Hm.

Two separate leaks and a floor that feels more like a speedway with ripples beneath it. Should have gotten on our rollerblades.  And now noise is everywhere from gargantuan fans, like helicopters landing, five of them.

Dust everywhere. Beautiful maple floors torn from their base, shredded like a slow cooked pork butt.  Sorry, I am a cook…that’s where my similes lead me. So for now my beloved kitchen and I are parted. I know it’s technically still here, but it’s more like a demolition zone.  Not really the kitchen I am used to which feels like a comfy sweater wrapped around my shoulders.

But at least I got to make my son’s birthday cookie “cake” and I got to give my kitchen as I knew it, it’s last hurrah. My son and his friends inhaled the cookie like it was their last meal.

This recipe is my ALL TIME FAVORITE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE! It’s just a smidgen different than your typical one.  Note the dark brown sugar and espresso powder. It is legendary and amazing, and I really think you should give it a try!  And if you have a kitchen you don’t mind sharing…let me know and I’ll pop by with my Emergency Baking Box and whip you up something wonderful. I’ll let you do the dishes. I hate dishes.

Geni’s Own Legendary Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
All mine, adapted from nowhere! 🙂
This recipe makes a double batch or one cookie sheet “cake”.
4 c. all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cups, not scooped.
2 t. baking soda
2 t. salt
1 T. instant espresso powder or coffee powder
3 sticks (1 1/2 c.) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (if you are using salted, don’t add the 2 t. salt)
1 c. light brown sugar
1 c. dark brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 T. natural vanilla extract
2-3 c. chocolate chips (I like to use half  semisweet and half Ghirardelli 70% dark chocolate chips)
optional: 1 c. walnuts, rough chopped

To make the cookies: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. For the sheet Cookie: Line a cookie sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper. Spray coat or grease the SIDES ONLY of the cookie sheet. Do not spray the mat or parchment.For regular cookies, just use line two cookie sheets with mats or parchment, no spray coating needed.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour baking soda, salt and espresso powder.  In a bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the room temperature butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat on low speed for each addition to incorporate. Add your vanilla and beat on low speed.  Add 1/3 of the flour mixture at a time, combining on low speed until just mixed together.  Don’t over mix. Add your chocolate chips and stir them in with a rubber spatula.

For the sheet cookie, scoop out large portions of the cookie dough onto the prepared pan, filling in any large gaps with mounds of cookie dough. Using a sheet of wax paper, spray coat your wax paper (or parchment will work fine) and press the wax paper on top of the cookie dough, flattening it out and filling in the entire sheet with dough.  Smooth it over with your hands to try to level the sheet of cookie dough.  Gently remove the parchment or wax paper which is on top.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes on a MIDDLE shelf. Half way through the baking, turn the cookie sheet around so you bake it evenly and it gets golden brown over the top.  The cookie should feel a tad bit soft to the touch when you take it out of the oven. It will firm up as it cools.  Let it cool COMPLETELY. To remove it from the pan, gently use a butter knife to release the cookie from the sides to begin with.  With a rectangular serving platter or cardboard cake base you can buy from Michael’s Craft Supply Store, place the platter over the cookie sheet and flip over.  You will have to do this again with another platter or cardboard cake base to get it right side up. DO NOT THINK YOU CAN USE A SPATULA.  It will crumble to its demise.  SO sad but tasty when you eat the crumbles.

To make regular cookies, scoop out the dough with a medium-sized ice cream scoop three across and four down onto your cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven.  They should be barely soft to the touch when you take them out.  Cool or eat warm…we’re all adults here…do what you darn well please.