A Dough-Riffic Surprise!

This past weekend, I volunteered at a community event sponsored by the Rotary Club of Oak Park and River Forest. It was a public rally to promote the club and attempt to rustle up some new members.The local chapter of the organization owns a complicated machine that looks like a super-sized gramophone and acts as a metal solar oven, thus cooking food without the use of electricity. As a promotion for the club, several members were baking chocolate chip cookies in the machine and I was sitting at a nearby table distributing them to whomever walked past. Prior to the start of the event, some adults had baked a batch of cookies to test the effectiveness of the solar oven. Because I was the only non-adult in the immediate vicinity during this time, I was offered a sample and asked to evaluate its taste. I grabbed it but soon noticed that it was falling apart in my hand, a sure sign of an underdone cookie. Nonetheless, I enjoyed every last bite. In fact, that cookie reminded me almost exactly of the much beloved chocolate chip cookies that used to be available in the OPRF cafeteria. 

Unfortunately, the Rotarians did not share my enthusiasm for the undercooked batch of chocolate chippers, so they decided to let the next batch sit in the oven for several additional minutes. Of course, I had to try the new batch of cookies to determine if baking the batch for longer created a better tasting result. I was deeply disappointed. The taste disparity between the overcooked and underdone cookie was so alarmingly wide that it was difficult for me to believe that both batches had originated from the same dough. As I stood there on the grass contemplating the mysterious effects of the cookie experiment I had just witnessed, I had a sudden epiphany. Though my theory is largely unproven, I believe that the former success of the OPRF cookie empire can be almost completely attributed to how underdone the cookies were.

Throughout the first two years of my high school experience, the headliner of the dessert menu at lunchtime was the iconic OPRF chocolate chip cookie. The way it melted in your mouth, like a hot waterfall of chocolate, was a contributing reason for why I continuously returned to the lunch counter to purchase cookies. Unlike their fully baked counterparts, I was able to break the cookie effortlessly into small pieces so as to savor every chewy mouthful. The size of the desert was ideal, as it left the consumer with a feeling of fulfillment not common among other confections. Without warning, however, OPRF discontinued this delectable treat and replaced it with….something else. I am speaking out of turn when I claim that the new cookies are distasteful, as I have never actually tried one myself. But based strictly on appearance, the cookies are conspicuously smaller and more well done than their predecessors. They lack a certain zing that was present in the cookies from previous years. The grease doesn’t bleed through to the plate in the same pleasing way as before. Based on the general reactions of my peers, I can surmise that the new cookies are clearly causing a general feeling of nostalgia in the student body for the glory days of OPRF cookie production. I cannot help but attribute this longing to the power of the undercooked chocolate chip cookie.