Before I begin, I need to clear the air: there is nothing wrong with your chocolate chip cookie. This old standby that your family has come to know and love will certainly be handed down through countless generations. It will outlive us all! I think you've got the golden ratio of dough to chip down pat. You have a preternatural ability to pull them out of the oven when they're soft, with a little crunch. I accept, nay, embrace, your cookie recipe for what it is. I'm pretty sure I'd love the sweet smell, as it wafts through your house, and I'd probably be the first to snatch a warm one from the tray (undoubtedly going back for seconds, thirds and fourths). In other words, I'm not taking issue with your cookie. Rather, the following mini-manifesto is just a few suggestions to help spice up your cookie, should you feel a bit wild one night. Walnuts, M&Ms, peanut butter chips? Things of the past. What I am modestly proposing, fellow cookie enthusiasts, is that we push the envelope further. Thus, I've compiled the five best, most bizarre, cookie additions found across the web. Warning: only for the daring.

1. Chopped Chili Peppers This is an easy and effective way to add dimension and complexity to your cookies. (Fun Fact: Mexican chocolate is often already infused with spices like chili peppers). The heat and spice emphasizes a range of flavors in the chocolate, thus introducing a rainbow of flavors your tongue may have not previously detected. The addition will demand you eat your cookie more thoughtfully, swishing it around your mouth like an aged wine and furrowing your brow in contemplation. It's kinda like getting punched in the mouth by the Pillsbury Dough Boy: probably sweet and soft for the most part, but it would still leave you tingling and slightly shocked.

2. Pineapple You know at weddings when the DJ plays Bob Marley and all your old relatives start dancing and it's a little embarrassing and awkward, but then you realize everyone is just having a good time? Adding pineapple (and coconut) to chocolate chip cookies is like that. Approach with some skepticism. Think to yourself, "how does this festive, island vibe fit in with my distinguished old cookies?" Then, go for it. It will be like a funky wedding reggae party in your mouth.

3. Bacon I feel like you and I have become pretty close at this point in the article. So I don't mind sharing with you that I sometimes lose sleep at night, fearing the day the bacon trend will collapse under its own weight. If there is anything that the past couple years has demonstrated its that adding bacon to anything makes it better. Choc. chip cookies are no exception. Whether candied or smoked, bacon can turn your baking into something special. I could go on and on, but our friend Tennessee Locavore already said it best.

4. Fleur de Sel As I was writing this, my office mate from Smosh commented, "Saltiness is part of what makes chocolate chip cookies so awesome. It hammers all your dopamine receptors at the same time with all the fat and sweet and salt." Which made me think, more salt equals more awesomeness. Salt News (who else?) recommends this salty recipe. Top your cookie with the salt and let it run rampant across your taste buds. It will play more of central role among the cast of ingredients, like chocolate chip's quirky best friend. Plus, it will make your cookies glisten like Christmas.

5. (Raw) Ginger A ginger chocolate chip cookie is like the perfect partner: spicy, but sweet; rich, but not too rich. Eh, that's a pretty gross simile, but trust me, adding ginger is decidedly not gross. There are many ways you can go about adding this ingredient: candied, raw, shredded, ground. It will give your cookie a little zing and add that boutique bakery taste.

Honorable Mention: Love Perhaps the strangest ingredient of all... Yet, completely necessary for chocolate chip cookies. I've tried to make them without it-substituting spite, malice, indifference, or Splenda-and they turned out terribly.