BEST LAID PLANS often go awry, especially in a house that shelters a seven-year-old boy. Well, let it be said: a seven-year-old boy plus a forty-something man, plus me—the only one here with double-X chromosomes and plummeting estrogen levels. Sometimes the plan is for nothing other than a calm morning or evening, and yet . . . lines get crossed over breakfast, buttons get pushed at bedtime. Feelings get hurt, and everyone goes his or her own way—to work, school, or bed—mad or injured or both. Such has been the past week, and it sucks. It sucks whether you’ve played a key role in the dispute or whether you find yourself wearing the referee’s stripes.
Enter Emergency Cookies. Sometimes your little one needs them; sometimes you do.
I believe that every home should always have a batch of emergency comfort cookies on hand—like a first-aid kit or a fire extinguisher, only edible. Not that I am advocating a pattern of stress eating, or touting sugar as a steady form of self-medication. Please don’t get me wrong; that is unhealthy and the cause of many serious health problems. Like the fire extinguisher, emergency cookies should be used judiciously, in dire circumstances (family blowout, playground bully, broken heart…?).
Of course, many people routinely keep a stash of goodies in their pantries, ready for random moments of need. But I want to be clear about something: true emergency cookies are not store-bought, preservative-laden gratification—that’s just empty eating. No, I’m talking about the ability to have, at a moment’s notice, a warm-from-the-oven, made-from-scratch-by-someone-who-loves-you cookie. A cookie whose aroma fills the house while it bakes and draws any injured parties (including yourself) out of the cocoon of self-pity or “you’re being mean to me!” or “it’s unfair” and back to those feelings of being cared for in the simplest, sweetest, and most archetypal-Mom way.
Good emergency cookies should have these qualities: they should be easy to prepare with natural ingredients you have on hand; they should be easily adaptable to whims or particular taste preferences; and perhaps most of all, the unbaked dough should freeze well. In an emergency, you don’t have or want to take the time to think the process through—you want results.
The recipe I’m sharing here is a favorite Toll House-style cookie that became my Emergency Cookie over time. It’s important to note that not all the emergencies for which these cookies are pressed into service are of the negative, “patch-it-up” ilk. These are also the cookies that I store in the freezer in anticipation of happy occasions such as a spontaneous playdate after school. Kids adore them.
Whenever possible, I get my son to help me make up a batch—when there’s no emergency in sight, just the desire to spend time together in the kitchen. We bake some off right away, of course, because no work goes without its reward. The rest, though, go straight into the freezer, saved for a day like today: rainy here in New York, and off to a lousy start in the morning. But by afternoon, with the promise of a small batch of cookies and milk, well, you can see, we’re back to thumbs up. Even homework went smoothly after this, and that is one surefire way I know: the emergency’s over—for now.
Emergency Cookies
(adapted, but barely, from a recipe in Kids in the Holiday Kitchen, by J. Strand and T. Massman-Johnson)
Yield: Approximately 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (use old-fashioned)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips (or raisins or cranberries or other add-in of your choice)
Method:
For the cookie dough
Combine flour, oats, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium bowl, stirring for about 2 minutes.
In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla, mixing well.
Dump in the flour and thoroughly blend. Fold in the chocolate chips and/or your choice of other add-in ingredients.
Using two teaspoons, form dough into balls and distribute them on trays that will fit in your freezer. Freeze the dough balls until hard, then pile them into an airtight container and store in the freezer until needed.
To bake
Preheat the oven to 350F. Take out the number of cookies you wish to bake and set them, well-spaced, on a parchment-lined cookie sheet (or use a Silpat on top of your baking sheet). I have baked my cookies straight from the freezer, and they come out fine taste-wise. If you want the cookies to spread nicely, however, make sure to let them soften on the counter for a while first, before popping them in the oven.
Bake cookies 12-15 minutes, or until evenly golden and soft/crisp to your liking.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I believe. Amen. And the pictures are beautiful!
Well, that’s like preaching to the choir, though, isn’t it? ;-)
So glad you like the pictures. Thanks for taking the time to tell me so.
May you be emergency-free, but stocked up on cookies nonetheless!
Bad thing to stock up on cookies ICE (in case of emergency) ’cause they’ll get eaten by… me. They do look gorgeous!
Yes, I’ll admit this is a dangerous—but not necessarily a bad—thing! Thanks for stopping by to comment.