Several years ago, Wesley and I were inspired to make some cookies together.

I’ll provide you with a little backround information. We had some friends – a brother and a sister – who told us about a baking adventure they had together. One evening, when just the two of them were home, they decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies. One-third of the dough was the control group (nothing unusual added to them). Then they each took a third and added a secret ingredient. After the cookies were baked, they tasted each other’s cookies and tried to guess the secret ingredient.

Well, this sounded like fun, so ever since then, Wesley and I have wanted to make cookies together.
It turned out that Wesley and I were home alone a few nights ago, and we  finally had our cookie-baking fun. I found a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, and we got to baking. First we made about a dozen cookies which were the “control group”. Then I divided the rest between us. We each got a small lump to which we each added two secret ingredients. After Wesley left the kitchen, I added mint and chopped pecans to my cookies.

They smelled delicious as they baked in the oven. :)

Then Wesley came in. He took a l-o-n-g time to put his secret ingredients into his cookie dough. I wondered and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, Wesley said I could come back into the kitchen. He was laughing, and I could smell lemon in the air. Lemon and chocolate…together???

Anyway, we started to clean up, and Wesley checked on his cookies while they were baking:

Oh dear. By the look on his face, something must have gone wrong.

Uh-oh. Thankfully he had only gotten a small lump of dough…but still….

As you can imagine, it took some difficulty to chip them away from the pan! :)

And finally came the best part about cookies – eating them! Here’s our cookies from left to right: mine, the control one, and Wesley’s.  The control ones were delicious, and we liked the added mint and pecans in my cookies, too. Wesley’s secret cookies were hard and chewy with a slightly burnt, lemon-y, flavor….very interesting, to say the least.

We laughed, ate (the edible) cookies, and laughed some more. It was a very memorable night. But now we can say, years later when we’re old and gray, that we did indeed make cookies together.

In case you’re wondering, I later learned what Wesley had added to his, ahem, cookies.  As you can probably guess, one of them was lemon extract, and the other…well…I’ll just say this: one word of advice to all those aspiring cooks and bakers out there. Do not, under any circumstance, add a full cup of corn syrup to a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I’ll spare you from learning it the hard way. Just trust me. We know. :)