Golden yellow eggs, softened butter and caramelized brown sugar come together to make the most perfect, chewy, toffee-like brown butter chocolate chip cookie and junior Maggie Sampsell-Jones does it again.
For Sampsell-Jones, baking has always been a family affair. “My great grandma was really good at baking, so my mom kind of passed it on to me,” Sampsell-Jones said, “[The] earliest memory I have baking with my mom was baking traditional Swedish cookies for Christmas.”
Sampsell-Jones bakes to form connections with the people around her.
“Most of the time I bake for friends and I bring them to people when they’re having a hard time […],” she said, “I think baking means connection, it’s so interesting to learn about people’s preferences and where they come from. I think a lot of that stems from feeling comfortable and baking is a big part of a ‘homey’ feel.”
Her usual comfort go-to recipe is the brown butter chocolate chip, but Sampsell-Jones also specializes in other kinds of cookies. “My favorite recipe is probably either an Andes mint brownie cookie recipe or a brown butter white chocolate macadamia nut recipe,” she said.
Though these cookies sound complicated, they are actually quite simple. “They aren’t overly complicated cookies, but they also have a good amount of flair. Sometimes, to make a recipe stand out, people try to add so much to it that it becomes unenjoyable,” Sampsell-Jones said.
The most unusual cookie Sampsell-Jones has made was a cornmeal-based corn cookie. However, it was not a one-time experiment: “I would [make them again], but I would definitely change a few things. I would probably add more sugar to make them sweeter, get the edges a little crisper and maybe add an extra egg yolk to make the texture richer,” she said.
Though Sampsell-Jones is an expert cookie-baker now, the first batch she ever made turned out way less than perfect. “I think the first batch I made on my own I definitely burnt and it was a pretty basic chocolate chip recipe,” she said. But instead of discouraging her, it made her determined to do better the next time.
According to Sampsell-Jones, baking is flexible. “Honestly […] it’s all about preference, whether you want a thin or thick cookie, what type of chocolate or even how chewy you want it to be, it changes.”
Sampsell-Jones bakes almost every week. “I usually find my recipes online, make them, then edit them to cater my preferences,” she said.
Whether switching up the recipe and adding extra brown sugar for a softer cookie, or adding creative mix-ins like nuts or spices, Sampsell-Jones understands that, like life, baking is something to savor.
What kind of cookie are you?
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