Cookies, Cakes & Pies Oh My!

I have traveled far and wide, but I have never tasted anything as perfect as a fat, warm chocolate chip cookie, chunky, with the soft crunch of slightly astringent walnuts and gooey with chunks of melting chocolate.

Or maybe perfection lies in a thick bar of buttery shortbread, barely golden and seething with a gooey center of melted caramel. How about a tall, all-American layer cake, sitting high and proud, with as much delectable frosting as moist cake; or a simple, elegant pound cake, fragrant with almonds, with a dense velvety texture and a crumb as fine as silk? I just can’t decide. Are you more interested in pie? Imagine a flaky crust holding apple slices snuggled in a warm cinnamon-speckled syrup under a crumbled crown of crisped brown sugar, or tender macadamia nuts jostled and bumping together in a chewy cream of butterscotch and bourbon.