Winstead Wandering

Prone to Wander

Tips for Making Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

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You don’t have to be a professional baker to make fluffy, chewy, perfect chocolate chip cookies. Follow these tips and your cookies will come out flawless every time.

Chocolate chips cookies are a universally-loved dessert, right? If you’re out of baking ideas- or if you just don’t like to be in the kitchen- you can never go wrong with chocolate chip cookies.

Then why are they so hard to make? They must be because people continue to be satisfied with store-bought logs of dough or place-and-bake imitations. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed both of those varieties on more than one occasion. I’m not known to turn down a chocolate chip cookie, no matter its origins.

You don't have to be a professional baker to make fluffy, chewy, perfect chocolate chip cookies. Follow these tips and your cookies will come out flawless every time.

But the thing is, people think those cookies are as good. Like as-good-as-homemade good, even though they’re far from it. And I’m convinced that cookie lovers everywhere would reject those pre-made impostors and make their cookies from scratch if only they realized how easy it is.

It is. Easy, that is. So easy. Can I tell you a secret? My homemade chocolate chip cookies are ah-mazing, but I don’t have a special recipe. I just follow the instructions on the bag of chocolate chips- whichever brand I happen to be using- and make a few special adjustments. The result is perfect chocolate chip cookies. Every time.

You don't have to be a professional baker to make fluffy, chewy, perfect chocolate chip cookies. Follow these tips and your cookies will come out flawless every time.

Tips for Making Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Use room temperature butter

It’s a rare thing for me to plan to make cookies in advance, which means I usually don’t have to set butter out to soften. Instead, I microwave sticks- straight from the fridge and still in the wrapper- for eight seconds at a time, turning them in between, until they’re soft. No more starting with melted butter.

Cream the butter and sugar

I know it’s in the instructions, bu I used to dump all the ingredients in the bowl and mix. My cookies tasted great, but the texture wasn’t as soft as it could be. One day, on a whim, I decided to cream the sugars with butter. The resulting cookies were fluffy and chewy without the slightest bit of graininess.

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Cooking Tips for People Who Don’t Like to Cook

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Cooking tips for people who don’t like to cook: tips, tricks, and advice for people who want to eat, but would rather be anywhere but in the kitchen.

Cooking tips for people who don't like to cook: tips, tricks, and advice for people who want to eat, but would rather be anywhere but in the kitchen.

I know there are a lot of people out there who genuinely don’t enjoy cooking. For whatever reason, they’d prefer to spend their time doing a hundred other things before they’d willingly hang out in the kitchen. What I’ve found, though, when I discuss my love of cooking with people who don’t cook, is that this is a typical response: “I’m not good at cooking; I don’t like it.”

Those are two entirely different statements, but I’ve come to understand how related they are. It makes sense; most of us don’t enjoy things we aren’t good at. I don’t like to sit down and paint or draw, largely because I’m a horrible artist. I never enjoyed math in high school and college because, while I wasn’t horrible, I wasn’t as good at it as I was at other subjects.

So if we can remove that degree of fear from cooking, if we can make it feel accessible even for those who aren’t at home in the kitchen, we can eliminate the first half of that statement and, in doing so, eliminate the second half, too.

Cooking Tips for People Who Don’t Like to Cook

  1. Start Small

If cooking isn’t something you’re good at or comfortable with, don’t jump right into hosting a five course meal for 12 people. Find a couple easy, similar recipes and master them. Maybe you’ll start with chicken- if so, I’d recommend trying baked green chile chicken taquitos, oven-fried chimichangas, and easy weeknight chicken tacos– or maybe pasta- sausage and tortellini or baked spaghetti– is more your thing.

Look for ingredients and techniques that you’ve heard of. Seek out recipes with a short list of steps, or processes that claim to be fool-proof.

2. Read the Entire Recipe Before Getting Started

Don’t just scan the ingredients list and call it good. Read all the ingredients and their amounts and read all each step. Be sure to read the comments, too; learn from the tips and critiques of others who have already prepared that dish. If a recipe calls for ingredients or techniques you’re not familiar with, consider finding another (or see #3).

Read through the recipe again right before making it. Pay attention to how the ingredients are listed; does it call for “one onion,” or “one onion, diced”? You’ll want to make sure your ingredients are in the required state so you don’t lose time when you start cooking. If you’re uncomfortable with the fast pace that’s necessary for a lot of recipes, make sure all ingredients and tools are accessible and ready to go. Measuring out spices, digging for the colander so it’s ready to drain the pasta; these are all small things you can do to make yourself more comfortable when the cooking begins.

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Tips to Make Your Week Run Smoothly

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Whether you’re single or married, have kids or don’t, you probably wish your weekdays weren’t so frantic. If that’s you, you’ve got to check out these practical tips to make your week run smoothly.

Whether you're single or married, have kids or don't, you probably wish your weekdays weren't so frantic. If that's you, you've got to check out these practical tips to make your week run smoothly.

I remember way back when J and I were first married and the only beings we were responsible for were ourselves. I enjoyed playing that game of alarm clock chicken most of us perfect during our college years: how late can I sleep, and how frantically can I dash around getting ready, and still make it to work on time?

Seven years and two kids later, we still play that game occasionally, but mostly we’ve learned some tips and tricks to avoid that early morning dash. There was some trial and error, and we totally forget or are too lazy to do some of these things sometimes. When we do, though, our entire week is less frantic and more relaxed.

Tips to Make Your Week Run Smoothly

Run the Dishwasher on Sunday

I have to give credit for this idea to J. He first suggested we do this, way back at the beginning of the school year, and it’s been a pretty big deal. We run the dishwasher on Sunday afternoons, regardless of how full it is (unless it’s somehow practically empty). We unload it Sunday evening, and we get to start the week with a clean sink and a dishwasher that’s ready to be loaded with dishes.

Mondays are usually not great, so it makes worlds of difference to get to come home after work on Monday and not have that one chore looming.

Lay Out Your Clothes

I skip this too often. My tired Sunday night brain reasons that it’ll be fine if I just think about what I’m going to wear the next day. But it’s always faster when I actually set my clothes out, and the kids’ clothes, too. I typically lay out all the children’s outfits for the whole week, and I do mine a night or two at a time. To really take the stress out of the process, though, it’s best to choose outfits for the whole week.

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