Pretty Good Cookies

Los Angeles, California


I have to tell the truth. It's not really April. Its way past April, and I am fudging on my commitment to write at least two posts each month. Truth is, I've been on hiatus, and I will explain this shortly in a soon-to-be-published post entitled Hiatus. But I just couldn't go there after the last post. I needed some time out (from many things), and I needed to put down something that wasn't sad. I needed something life-affirming. I needed . . . cookies.


Besides, my other pledge was to include a recipe in every other post, so that I could consider what I was doing here as a sort of a food blog (delusional, but humor me). Ok, that didn't exactly turn out as planned, and that's not to mention dubious entries like that Graham Cracker Mush thing, or the Popcorn thing (even though I do think I prepare amazing-tasting popcorn). So, here is the one enlightening thing I've been doing lately. I've been reading happier books. All the books about people growing up in Afghanistan or fighting evil in Scandinavia (see previous post: The Girl with the Stupid Tattoo, available here, free, and for a limited time) were, frankly, wearing on me in my recent state. One shouldn't need psychotropic drugs just to get through their book stack. So I decided to hop on the happy train. I started in my stack of unread books, and found one that had been gifted to me several years back. It is Cooking for Mr. Latte, by Amanda Hesser. This one got me to sleep (since I read at bedtime) in a contented state of mind, with visions of sugarplums instead of heinous crimes.


You have to love a food memoirist who actually shares a recipe entitled: Frosting Minus the Cupcakes. When my mother was in the hospital this spring, I spent time in her room (in an uncomfortable chair. Why? Why?!?!) with my feet propped on her bed, cataloging Ms. Hesser's recipes on a lined tablet. It's been my go-to cookbook (even though it is ostensibly a food blog with recipes) of late. And here are the cookies, ta-da!


Chocolate Chunk-Pecan-Coconut Cookies


2 sticks         unsalted butter, softened
1 cup              sugar
1 cup              packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large           eggs
3 cups            all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon    baking soda
pinch              sea salt
24 ounces      best quality-bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 
                              chunks, shreds & all
2 cups             toasted chopped pecans
1 cup                grated coconut


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two large baking sheets. In a mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk, cream the butter with the sugar and light brown sugar until it's good and fluffy like a mousse. Add the vanilla and eggs and keep beating until it's smooth.


In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add it to the mixer in small portions, beating it on low until blended in before adding more. Once the dry ingredients are all in there, pour in the chocolate, pecans and coconut. Fold them in by hand, with a spatula -- it is a bit of a workout, but the best way to coat the ingredients evenly.


My mother (Note: this is Amanda's mother, as I've copied the recipe verbatim) likes to chill the dough a little (30 minutes or so) before baking, which helps the cookies hold their shape better when baking. Then she uses an ice cream scoop to drop the dough onto the sheets. She flattens them lightly with her fingers, so they spread evenly. They should be about 1/2 inch thick and two inches around before baking. Bake for twelve to fifteen minutes, until lightly browned on the edges and cooked in the center. Cool on racks. Store in a cookie tin (Oh, come on. That's a little bossy!).


Makes two dozen large cookies.


Ok, so here we go. In spite of my snide commentary, Ms. Hesser's recipes are excellent, and easy to follow. And also, despite my damning-with-faint-praise title above, these are pretty amazing cookies. It makes an inordinate amount of dough, and for those of you clever enough to figure out how to use one and-a-half eggs -- you go and make a half of a batch. I made a dozen large cookies following the recipe exactly, but froze the other half of the dough. I'm planning to bake that half this week to greet approaching house guests. This should have them eating out of my hand.


One last note, Ms. Hesser's story about these cookies is that they were finishing up a stay at a vacation home (I don't know, Hamptons or Martha's Vineyard or something, I can't remember) and wanted to make a sort-of kitchen sink version of cookies to use up ingredients in the larder. This tells you (in case you didn't already know) that you can change out the nuts and play around with the chocolate, if you like. I used a lot of different bittersweet chocolate that I had around the pantry, including different percentages which rendered some of the chocolate extra-bittersweet. I even threw in some Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips. Just hit the ounce requirement, mas o menos.


If you love these cookies, and/or I've piqued your interest in Amanda Hesser, feel free to check out her foodblog here. I intend to read other books by her, sometime after I finish the very thick World of Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. Did you think I was kidding about reading happier books?


So, did Cooking for Mr. Latte cheer up the sodden mess I call me? Did eating these cookies do the trick? Well, no. And no. But everything helps a little. And I will try to explain this in my coming posts. Stay tuned . . . and thank you once more for hanging in there with me and reading my blog!