Cookie Baking
I made chocolate chip cookies last night (I used a recipe in the Once Upon a Tart cookbook, but it's pretty basic). Sorry to sound like the end of a coming-of-age novel, but it taught me a couple of things about myself.
I've come a long way in terms of cooking and baking. There was a time when baking a batch of cookies was an event, involving what seemed to me a huge shopping list, a long process and endless scooping and baking. I would skip key elements, like using room-temperature butter, or not know how to "make" the butter room temperature quickly (microwave, LOW POWER, in 30 second increments until your thumb leaves a mark). I know some of you will understand what I'm saying, and others of you have baking in your blood and can't imagine that a batch cookies could be viewed as daunting. Anyway, I have changed. I have all the ingredients on hand (they're staples in my kitchen) and everything goes so quickly and easily. I was a little surprised. And I always used to be disappointed in the results, but the cookies I made last night are awesome. (I have in my possession a box of Entenmann's cookies that I'm supposed to deliver to a friend, and that's what got me craving cookies last night, but I wasn't allowed to open the box since they weren't mine, so that's why I made my own. Mine were better.)
The other thing I learned about myself is that I'm a comfort baker. Some news made me a little sad last night, so I made a batch of cookies, and it made me feel better. Skilled and useful, like I could do something that other people would appreciate and enjoy. Is that an unhealthy attitude about food? I just wish there were more than just the two of us to eat up all my comfort baking.
when i need the proverbial arm around my shoulders, because i have NO sweet tooth at all, i make spaghetti a la carbonara. i throw in superlative amounts of the most sinful ingredients, i toss, and i forget the world at large..
Hi Kim-
I don't think comfort baking is an unhealthy attitude about food at all. I think you should be proud of something you can make by hand that makes others feel good, very few people take the time to do that anymore. I'm sorry your news made you sad, hopefully you'll feel better soon.
It wasn't really that bad of news, I just had the blues, so the baking actually fixed me right up. Made me feel good about myself.
Mac and cheese is my savory comfort food, but I usually do reach for the sweets. There was just an article, I think it was in the NY Times, that said reaching for simple carbs like sugary sweets and pasta during stress is a biological impulse, because they calm you down. (You know, the carb coma you get after a big pasta meal.) The problem is if you're stressed all the time.
Coming from someone with a very big sweet tooth, there is nothing better than a hot, melt-in-your mouth chocolate chip cookie. I take baking these quite seriously. A great recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies is in the Typically Texas Cookbook II. (Yes, Texas --- what can I say...I don't have a good selection of cookbooks). Will send it to you sometime.
I love oatmeal cookies, so you'll definitely have to forward that one. I'm always looking for something new to bake.