Pretending and cookies and milk
I’ve felt especially nostalgic lately. Jonathan and I take long walks on empty rural roads each day. We pass raspberry farms and wheat farms and large families playing bocce ball on expansive lawns. I smell the soil. I drift back to extended family gatherings at my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’.
There are seven cousins—including me—on my dad’s side. We were lucky enough to grow up together. We played some version of sardines or hide-and-seek at my great-grandparents’ home on the Kitsap peninsula. The roof was our favorite hiding place. We climbed on the upstairs toilet and out the window onto the peak and ran around until one of the adults yelled for us to get down. We jumped onto thick grass and ran into my great-grandpa’s garden. We pulled carrots out of the soil, wiped them on our shirts, and bit the sweet crunch. Until our great-grandpa yelled for us to get out of his garden. Then we skipped down to the corner candy store. Loaded up on Sour Patch Kids. Ran the length of the beach. Balanced on driftwood.
As soon as our parents left for their trip to town, my grandparents’ home witnessed many games of Pigs in the Pen (a better version of hide-and-seek). “Don’t touch the walls!” My grandpa yelled from the driveway. When the adults returned, we’d all file into the empty field bordering the house for a game of baseball.
What freedom. What joy.
We spent much of the summer in Leavenworth. My mom and aunties freely cared for us while the dads returned to the city for wage-earning work during the week. Those gender roles passed from generation to generation. But with cracks of progress.
Our dads did more caregiving than their dads. Our moms received more wages than their moms.
When I was in law school, one of my immigration clients had a hearing to be released from detention. (Detention is equivalent to prison, but calling it something else helps people pretend it’s not so bad.) The government’s attorney asked my client: “Did you ever babysit your daughter?” “Babysit!” My client burst out half-laughing. Half-raging. “She’s my daughter. You don’t babysit your daughter. You care for her.” I smiled too wide for court.
I don’t have a kid yet. Most of my friends do. I keep thinking about those working from home with kids and no outside help. We designed a world to separate the lives of children and adults. The pandemic pierced that veil.
Maybe we can build a world that doesn’t pretend so much. That recognizes that communities raise children. And more wage-earning work doesn’t get done just because we spend more hours alone staring at a screen.
Maybe we can stop and have some milk and cookies. And share them with kids, and friends, and neighbors.*
*Safely share, of course. I wear a mask and gloves when getting baked goods out of the oven for friends. And I place said baked goods in sealed containers while wearing a mask and gloves to help prevent passing along COVID.
Servings: 18-24 cookies Time: 1 hour Via: Adapted from Smitten Kitchen*
*I’ll share lots of recipes from other sources, but Smitten Kitchen is my go-to. She’s the cook I’d marry if I played kill boff marry with cooks. So it’s only fitting my first three recipes come through her.
These cookies are a good place to splurge on high-quality butter, salt, and chocolate. I like Kerrygold butter, Maldon flaky salt, and Theo or K’ul chocolate. And much more important than taste, most chocolate is produced using slave labor so I’m extra careful to avoid that.
I highly recommend pairing these cookies with milk. The milk fat spreads the cookie flavor across your tongue. So whole milk is best. Blame it on science.
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (I like the texture of organic cane sugar best)
3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar, semi-packed (I’ll add the weight measurement soon)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
6 ounces 70% dark chocolate, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
Maldon salt for topping
Pre-heat oven to 360 degrees F. Yes, that’s 360 and not 350.
Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and dark brown sugar. I use a hand-held electric beater and beat for about 3 minutes. A stand mixer would certainly work, too.
Add the egg and vanilla. Beat to incorporate. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl when needed.
Add the kosher salt and baking soda—spreading them as evenly across the dough as possible. Beat to incorporate.
Add the flour. Beat on a low speed until just mixed. The dough will look like crumbly sand (see photo above).
Fold in the chocolate chunks with a spatula.
Scoop the dough into heaping tablespoon mounds (see photo above) and space them on the sheet pans.
Sprinkle Maldon salt on top of each mound.
Bake one sheet pan at a time for 11-12 minutes each. The outside should be slightly golden brown.
Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then move them to a cooling rack.