John’s go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe was from our family’s go-to cookbook, the Original Fannie Farmer. Amanda and I always wondered why other kids’ parents made big, thick, soft, pillowy chocolate chip cookies, while our parents made thin, wrinkly, flat, crunchy cookies. Fannie Farmer’s wrinkly chocolate chip cookies were like a staple in our household, and we ate them, but we didn’t like them, damnit.
Amanda and I spent our high school and college years rebelling from John’s wrinkly Fannies. We would only eat our friend’s soft cookies, and we would do everything in our power to find the perfect cookie recipe (according to Tash, the secret is half shortening, half butter). It wasn’t until two years ago, for a Race for the Cure bake sale I was putting on at work, that Amanda and I gave the Wrinkly Fannies another chance.
Low and behold, those weird, wrinkly, flat cookies weren’t half bad. We discovered that the whole time, John had been overcooking them to achieve the crisp crunch he liked, but if we cooked them according to directions, they came out perfect…imagine that. Still thin, flat, wrinkly, and slightly crunchy on the outside, but with a salty, buttery, chewy center. Now we’re a little obsessed with them… wrinkles and all.
Today John is having surgery on his knee, and we wish him the best of luck on a speedy recovery… because we’re a little obsessed with him too, wrinkles and all.
Chocolate Chip Cookies aka: John's Wrinkly Fannies
From the original Fannie Farmer cookbook
¼ lb butter
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
¾ teaspoon vanilla
1 1/8 cups flour
½ t salt
½ t baking soda
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 and grease cookies sheets. Cream butter, then gradually add the two sugars, beating until light and smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix flour, salt, baking soda together and add to butter mixture, blending well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets about 1 inch apart and bake 8-10 minutes.
