Madeleine a young blonde haired, pig tailed dutch girl eagerly picks up a koekje recipe, and begins throwing ingredients into a bowl. Koekje’s were originally her moeders test cakes, she would bake to make sure her batter was made correctly. These test cakes were Madeleine and many of the village children’s favorites. It was not long before her moeder began to make her entire cake recipe into little koekjes. Little did she realize that this would inspire and become the start of something great. Something, that would spread from country to country, delighting people of all ages. She had created what we call the cookie.

Madeleine was excited to make her moeders koekjes. It would be a great surprise to moeder and how hard could it be? You just measured the ingredients, mixed them together, and popped them in the oven. A whirlwind of flour and spices filled the air as she rushed around the kitch, her red skirt whipping around adding to the flurry as she mixed vigorously. When all the dust and flour settled, most of it on Madeleine, you could see her bowl of dough sitting on the counter. She eagerly looked at it, but as she began to drop the balls of dough one by one on the baking tray, the sparkle in her blue eyes began to fade, and her smile began to disapear from her face. Her moeders dough was much smoother than this, and she didn’t remember there being chunks of butter as there was in hers. She shrugged her shoulders, and her excitement overtook her again. Oh well.She had followed the recipe and measured everything carefully, so they had to turn out right. Or so she thought. She watched eagerly as they began to bake, but something was very, very wrong. One of them began to run too much, turning into a puddle of butter and sugar, but that one over there hadn’t spread at all! It was still in a little flour covered ball. She removed the pan from the flame and tried dip the cookies from the pan. The one that spread would hardly come off the pan, and that little ball of a cookie? It fell apart revealing a huge clump of flour in the middle. Poor little Madeleine began to sob. Her moeder made it look so easy! Where had she went wrong? She looked at the recipe again. She had put everything in there, and measured it so carefully. So, where could she have messed up?

It was then her moeder walked in. Greeted by the sight of her poor flour covered Madeleine in tears, she asked her what ever was the matter. As Madeleine shown her the cookies, and explained her the problem, a knowing look came across moeders face. She picked up the recipe, and began to explain to Madeleine how to properly mix the cookie. Madeleine carefully began mixing, following her moeders directions. Once done, she nervously set the pan of koekjes over the fire and waited. The batter began to rise, spread evenly, and turn a beautiful golden brown. She pulled the pan from the fire and dipped a cookie off the pan. Her eyes lit up as she sunk her teeth into the perfect golden koekje. It was perfect.

These instructions were the key to making the perfect cookie. Here they are in my own words, since I can’t speak or write dutch very well. I hope they help those of you like Madeleine bake the perfect cookie.

First things first. Believe it or not there is a method to how the ingredients are listed. On just about every cookie recipe you will find that butter and sugars, (brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, corn syrup, or honey) are listed first. This is not because they are the best tasting ingredients, but rather they are listed this way is because they are the first two ingredients you mix together in just about every cookie recipe. The mixing of these two ingredients sets the foundation for your cookie. If the foundation is not formed properly you will have cookies that may be flat, or run such as these.

The best way to achieve a smooth creamy mixture is to let your butter come to room temperature to ensure easier and more even mixing. I will admit I do not always have the patience to wait for the butter to soften and often just toss it in the mixer. This works fine if you have a KitchenAid mixer, but if using a hand blender or mixing by hand, such as Madeleine did, this is not something you want to do. Once you have your butter softened mix it with your sugars. Blend until you have a nice, smooth, and creamy texture such as this.

You do not want any chunks of butter, like this dough, or your cookies will come out like Madeleine’s.

Next, you will mix in your eggs. If your recipe calls for more than one egg, add one at a time, to prevent an eggy mess. After this you will add your other ingredients except for flour, or add ins such as chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, etc. The reason for this is, if you add the flour with your baking soda, salt, and such it is a lot easier for them to clump together and not thoroughly mix into the dough. Before adding flour, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again, to ensure everything is mixed well. Once you have done this, add your flour slowly to the batter. I like to add my flour slowly to keep from having a cloud of flour in the kitchen, but if you are mixing by hand this is not a big deal. Once the flour has been mixed in scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again. After you are done with this, you are ready to move on to the final and yummiest step, the chocolate chips! Dump these in and pulse the mixer. Don’t mix too long or you will have shards of chocolate chips. When they are scattered throughout the dough you are done mixing and ready to bake them!

Madeleine is an entirely fictional character, as is her mother, although I am sure there were situations such as Madleines in times past, and quite possibly there was a Madeleine such as this one. Though this story was fictional, the fact cookies originated in the Netherlands and were called koekjes is not. They were indeed test cakes called koekjes that grew increasingly popular and evolved into the cookies we have today.