The Legend of the Salty Cookies.....

There is a legend in our family that gets told at most family gatherings where food is served. We have a few stories that make the rounds but this story is one of the favorites.

Whenever I take a homemade treat to a family potluck, I usually get a comment from one of my nephew or nieces joking that they hope my treats aren't "too salty." My brothers apparently told this story as a bedtime story to their children. I have another story that they tell about me but that I will save for another day.....

So, here I tell you, "The Legend of the Salty Cookies!"

When I was nine, I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies. Now, in a family with 8 children, the middle to younger children were usually unnoticed unless a major issue arose. Having five children myself, I understand that we are there for every event of the first child's life and as we have more and more children, things just slip as you are busy helping the older kids or running children to lessons or games.

With that said, I was the fifth child and my mother was gone doing things only a mom does. So, I pull out a recipe card that looked good. I start to make the cookies. I get to the ingredient of salt. It said, add 1 c. salt. Now, I did remember thinking that was odd but what does a nine year old know. So, I think the person writing the recipe knows more than I do so I add a cup of salt. The cookie dough didn't taste so great but I thought maybe they needed to be baked before they tasted better.

They came out of the oven smelling heavenly. I took a bite and choked as if I had swallowed a mouthful of ocean water. It was so salty. I ran to the bathroom to spit it out. At that time, my oldest brother who was in high school went into the kitchen smelling the wonderful aroma of cookies. As I was headed back to the kitchen, there is an awful blood curdling scream from the kitchen. Of course, everyone in the house runs in to find my brother gagging over the sink.

My mother arrives home at this point and tries to gain control and console my oldest brother. She asks me what happened and I told her I followed the recipe exactly. I show her the card and she said, "Yes, it does say 1 c. but that is way to much salt."

My DEAR SWEET MOTHER doesn't want my first baking experience to be bad. Instead of throwing away the batch and making a new one with me, (which is probably what I would do) she turns it into a higher math problem and gets all the children involved in figuring out how many times we would need to multiply the recipe in order to use 1 cup of salt!

I am feeling horrible at this point but my older siblings figure out the lengthy math problem and the calculations for amounts of flour, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips etc but they didn't have to do much to figure out how much salt to add!

My mother whips out her wallet and proceeds to send my brothers to the store for hundreds of pounds of sugar, flour and other needed items. While they were gone, she pulls out our largest canning pan and the largest measuring cups.

Looking online at the Original Toll House cookie recipe, there is 1 teaspoon of salt in the recipe. If we put 1 cup of salt in, we would have to make 48 times the recipe. That includes 96 eggs and 97 cups of flour. I remember my arm trying to reach down in the dough and stir it with a long spoon and not being able to mix it. I think what we ended up doing in the end was washing our hands to above the elbow and several of us mixing it with our arms. My friend Jay said all he could think about was hauling in a cement mixer to mix the dough when he heard the story. Paints a funny picture! It would have made 2,880 cookies!

We proceeded to make the largest batch of cookie dough I have ever or care to ever see. We then wrapped and froze the dough and had cookie dough for at least a year and with 8 children sneaking it at every turn that is a whole lot of cookie dough!

I had forgotten that horrible event of the past but thanks to my brother's amazing bed time story telling abilities, I now get to hear my brothers laugh about it at least once a year if not more.

I figure if you can't beat them, join them! I hope you enjoyed the "Legend of the Salty Cookies" as much as they do.

I to this day, make large batches of cookie dough. It must have created an issue. :-) After mixing the main ingredients, I take a few cups out and put nuts and white chips in. I take another few cups out and put coconut and chocolate chips in them. I take another few cups out and add mint chips. I usually make about 4 times the recipe and then add the different extras and then I freeze them. I label the outside of the foil with a Sharpie and write what the "extras" are and what temperature and how long to bake them.

This way if someone I know is having a baby, has a loss or is just going through a hard time, I can take over a cookie log and they can bake it when they want them. Or, I just throw them in the oven for 10 minutes or so and have a hot plate of cookies to take over with a card.

To freeze them, I lay a long amount of foil down and then the same amount of Saran wrap on top of it. I then spoon the dough into the center of the wrap. I then take both sides of the wrap and lift it off the foil and kind of tap and flip the dough so that it forces the air out and forces the dough into a log shape. I then roll the wrap together in one direction until it is touching itself on the side and then fold in the sides back onto the wrap.

I then do the same thing with the foil rolling both down one side and then folding the sides in as you would a camp fire foil dinner. I label it with the baking info and content and place it in the freezer.

I tried making little cookie balls and freezing them on cookie trays and placing them in ziplock bags but it took a long time and for the amount of cookie dough I make, it also takes up more space in the freezer. I tried ziploc bags but the dough sticks to the side and doesn't freeze in a log which is easy to cut. The dough doesn't stick and when I cut it there is no waste.

When I have company or choose to bake them, I pull out the type we want. I turn on the oven, unwrap the dough and then using a butter knife, cut off the desired size cookie. If the bundle isn't round, I just take the frozen dough which thaws quickly and roll it around in my hand until it forms a ball and place them on a cookie sheet and bake.

I love that my mom helped me have a fun baking experience and that I still enjoy baking. What a mom....

Hope you enjoy trying this at home and hope that the memory of the "Legend of the Salty Cookie" brings a smile to your face as you do.