C Is for Cookie
And That's Good Enough for Me (On Treats, Duh)
I kicked off last year’s “essays” with my trips to NY bakeries and thoughts about influence. Well, look where my mind is once again.
Cookies are a treat that, perhaps, many of us have had throughout our lives. During a year in undergrad, I survived off cookies. A friend and I would meet for tea and a treat before classes at least once a week, and that would be my breakfast or lunch some days. I would stop by the Coffee Bean I worked at to see what pastries would be left for the night. I would hope that, along with a cookie or two, a vendor in the shopping center would give me a discount.
As a childhood non-chocoholic (and an adult non-chocoholic, honestly), I was everyone’s favorite because yes, they got more chocolate during Halloween, but more importantly if chocolate cookies were around, they knew I would not be touching them. My favorites were the little Grandma’s Sandwich Vanilla Cremes, those tiny vanilla cookies in a bag. Granted, these were pre-vanilla Oreos (and even then, I think I’m choosing Grandma’s!).
Of course, I was an oatmeal raisin girl. Oatmeal without raisins?! tragic. Oatmeal raisin with nuts?! Tragic. (Now I’m good, depending on what’s going on with the cookie! But usually if it’s just oatmeal raisin, no nuts is preferred!) Oatmeal chocolate chip?! Nah. (Except okay wait maybe a white chocolate chip and cranberry? Just another type of raisin! And white chocolate isn’t technically chocolate.)
Which leads me perfectly into discussing Martha Stewart’s Ultimate Kitchen Sink cookie.
Martha’s ultimate kitchen sink cookie has rolled oats, dark chocolate, coconut, sour cherries, apricots, and toasted pecans. This is adult Carly’s dream, like a jazzed up version of what oatmeal cookies could be. I do like dark chocolate (I discovered this as a barista when I was too polite to tell my trainer that I don’t like chocolate, but needed to taste the featured hot chocolate and chai & chocolate croissant pairing. It was a magical evening). I love a sour cherry and apricot—still chewy, slightly sweet. I looooove coconut (texture!). And yes, toasted pecans, my favorite, a slight vanilla from the pecan, not overwhelming like a peanut. You can get these cookies from maman, a coffee shop and bakery on the East Coast, as part of Martha’s collab with them all winter.
And lest we forget, and may my NY bakery post above remind you: we’re back in coffee toffee cookie season from Levain.
Yes, the image is the same as last year’s—a picture so nice I’m using it twice. The cookie still is everything I want, and again, against childhood Carly’s wishes: this dark chocolate cookie dough has espresso, so it’s not just chocolate all the way through. There is nuance to it, a depth from the espresso. Then those delightful toffee bits: vanilla crunch. There’s something really delightful about the bottom of the cookie, where you see bits of melted toffee. I have had two so far this season, and cannot stop telling people to go get this cookie if you can!
I also tried their toffee latte, and whewwwww. Levain uses some dark espresso. The barista took quite a while to lovingly make the drink, too (bless her), and I got to see the labor of scooping some fresh whip cream and sprinkling toffee bits (which would sink to the bottom of the cup and melt a touch, yet retain some crunch). Would I get the drink again? I don’t think so, BUT maybe I need to try an iced version (except that it is very cold out here, and definitely snowing this weekend, so iced drinks won’t be in my future for some time).
Now these are two cookies I will truly wake up early for (if I had to). I am planning on going out tomorrow (hello day off), and will be stopping by my local Levain.
Speaking of waking up, let me fall into childhood, again, briefly: There is a tale of loving cookies so much, we would wake for them. My older sister fell asleep on the couch, and nothing would wake her… except for my little sister finally saying “Cookies” and my older sister saying “Where?”
And Now, We Further the Plot: Your Literary Rec
Nostalgia is rife during the winter months—I mean, the trend of looking back at 2016 is very present among us! Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was the first book I read this year (after having it on my TBR shelf for about 1.5 years), and holy heck. I read it in 10 days, which, for a 400-page novel, is like running a marathon for my reading patterns/habits. It moves fast, truly: a tale of two friends from childhood who share a love for video games and decide to collaborate. It’s a love story, too—of friendship, yes, but the way their love for things and people and each other changes over the years. I can’t stop thinking about it. When my beloved tells me about his stats on an RPG (currently The Division II), the side missions, the timing of retaliations from other factions, I listen with ease. I look at game engines and think of Zevin’s Sam and Sadie, of the engineers building toward worlds, the upkeep. The Division II has been going on and getting updated for seven years, which means there is a dedicated team updating and debugging at all times. To them. To the players. To the joy of nostalgia and snacks we have while gaming.