Just weeks before his last day of high school, my son and I spent an afternoon sorting through crates and trunks filled with his childhood mementos. I had paid him (with cash and the promise of unlimited car access on graduation weekend) to help edit 18 years of artifacts collected by a doting mother into one box of keepsakes.
When he discovered his preschool-created cookbook under a pile of papers filled with practice-scribbles, I reached for it.
“I want to read the famous cookie recipe again,” I said.
“Mom, we don’t have time for you to go through every page,” he replied, pulling the book away with a special-effect groan.
I took a deep breath and reminded my only child of his promise to humor me during a difficult time.
“I already miss you and you’re not even gone yet,” I whispered.
“Here, Mom.” He put the book in my hand and said with his trademark crooked grin, “I think you cried the first time I gave you this book.”
The book was filled with about two dozen recipes from each child’s perspective of his or her family’s favorite dishes.
“My mom invented cookies. She’s the best cook in the Universe,” my son had long-ago dictated to his preschool teacher, including directions to mix a bag of flour, a “box” of eggs and “all the chips that fit.”
I had explained to my little boy that I had just tweaked an old recipe–Thank you, “Ruth Wakefield’s Toll House Tried and True Recipes”–to make the more healthful crispy cookies we would later name John Eliot cookies in his honor.
Today, I still send regular long-distance cookies to my favorite college graduate with the crooked grin. In some ways, regularly shipping these cookies to dorm rooms and first apartments helps me feel connected, bridging the gap between “full-time” Mom and “standby” Mom.
The day I surprised both of us by saying, “There’s your dream, go chase it,” I knew sending those family pastries gave me the courage to let go. And you can pretty much count me as an expert on the subject.
I am, after all, the woman who invented cookies.
HOME-AND-AWAY COOKIES
Makes 36 cookies
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup each currants, golden raisins, dark raisins
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup each: packed light-brown sugar, packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon each: pure almond extract, vanilla
2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together flours, baking soda and salt in a large bowl; set aside (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). Stir together currants, raisins and chips in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugars until creamy with a mixer on medium speed. Add eggs; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in extracts. Fold reserved flour mixture into batter until just mixed. Fold in oatmeal. Stir in currant, raisin and chip mixture (batter will be stiff).
3. Drop by tablespoons, spacing evenly, on two baking sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, until cookies are light golden brown, about 23 minutes per batch. Remove from oven; cool on sheet, about 1 minute. Remove cookies with a spatula and transfer to wire racks.
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dpierce@tribune.com
