Cookie Therapy: Welcome to the Cookie Couch!

THE THEORY BEHIND COOKIE THERAPY.

It’s simple really – when the s*** hits the fan, I bake. One definition of “therapy” according to Mr. Webster is: any act, hobby, task, or program that relieves tension. So I’ve noticed in myself that when I am saddened, stressed, bored, avoiding folding my laundry, PMS-ing and/or simply need a good buttery dough fix, I bake cookies. I also bake cookies for happy things too, like holidays or when I’m crushing on boys. (Note: boys like cookies.)

Now, you’re thinking, “anyone can flip a bag of Nestle Toll House over and 34 minutes later be in a heap of dough and chocolate chip bliss.” True – and I myself sometimes revert back to that simple routine and take comfort in the classic Toll House recipe. But my cookies are different. They have even been called at one time… ridiculous. Once I mastered my own basic dough formula, I elaborated - like any good client in therapy would do! You keep talking because it feels good to hear yourself talk and spew emotion out at stranger! But after 50 minutes all your left with is blurry eye make-up and 140 dollars less in your bank account. With cookie therapy, whatever mood I’m feeling results in at least 3 dozen happy little bundles of baked dough, which in turn makes approximately 24 to 30 other people happy for 6 minutes (average time it takes to consume cookie plus revel in delightful post-last-bite feeling). It’s cheaper than real therapy and far more people reap the benefits of my pain and tears.

Now back to the “elaborate” and “ridiculous” part. Life is made up of fabulous ingredients that I believe can all be worked into a cookie in some delicious way. For example… Nutella, pretzels, or Reese’s peanut butter cups, wonderful all on their own, (life changing even), but their goodness can totally be amplified in one of my cookies. One day when I was pining to be back in Europe and needed to empty the Nutella jar before I dipped one more fatty spoonful in it – I refocused my energy into what I’ve named my, “Nutella Nut” cookie. A rich chocolate cookie experience where Nutella stands in for half the butter content while pistachio nuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips mingle together for added flavor fabulousness and a dash of color. Pretzels became the star of a peanut butter cookie when I needed to crunch out some aggression after not getting the part in a play over some skinny little 5 foot 2 newbie to Hollywood and when imagining myself kicking her got old and creepy I escaped to my kitchen and ate a lot of pretzels until the salty satisfaction wore off right when genius struck me and I busted out the flour, peanut butter, and pretzels’ best lover – chocolate - and well, magic was made. And finally at the end of the day nothing sooths and comforts like the salty, creamy, sweetness of a Reese’s peanut butter cup when it’s almost that-time-of-the-month and you feel fat and you cried when someone cut in front of you in line at Ralphs to buy gum. You get the gist. At the end of the day, if cookie therapy makes me feel better, why not share the love and make the world a happier place, one little drop of dough at a time.

My goal for Cookie Therapy is to provide you with a new delicious cookie while sharing with you the emotional inspiration behind it. Let’s call them emo-cookies! I hope to get out at least 3 recipes a month, and if I fail on that number it’s probably because I’m in a really happy skinny place in my life that I don’t want to compromise with for your sugar and story satisfaction. (I hope you understand. I know the girls will.)

Now sit back, grab a spoon, make some dough, and enjoy!!!

I launch cookie therapy with this first recipe, a result of the demise of the Dodgers and the end of baseball season for 2009. (yeah yeah I know there are still 3 other teams playing but we hate them and they are losers who should all just go take showers. Hhmph. Oops.) Anyway, to cope with my Dodger blues, I baked up a little tribute to say goodbye to baseball for 2009. “Cookies with peanuts and Cracker Jack.”

I want to deliver this recipe to you with a letter I wrote to the LA Times.

Dear Dodgers,

When the Dodgers were in the playoffs last year, my Dad missed it due to a fierce heart attack that left him brain damaged. This is the Dad who has had season tickets for 29 years, who took me to the Dodger/Red Sox series for my 21^st birthday when I was going to school in Boston, and who raised his only daughter and kid to bleed Dodger blue. Through the playoffs last year I wore his old blue jacket with the ’88 World Series patch on the arm and went to all the games we had after kissing him goodbye at the hospital. Fortunately – after a year of rehabilitation and healing – my dad has been up on his feet, and to EVERY Dodger game we had tickets to this season. When we lost last night, I sobbed. Not only for our Dodgers, but because they are the only thing that makes my Dad smile so big and feel a part of real life again. Every time we sat down in our seats right over Andre, first row loge, my Dad would sigh a breath of relief, as if he was home, and comment on what a beautiful view we had of the field. He would watch every pitch, and high-five every home run. He doesn’t remember the players, if you were to ask him who our manager is he’d probably say Lasorda. But in the moment of the game it didn’t matter, he was happier than I ever see him anymore, and I can say for those 9 innings in each game, I had my real Dad back. Thank you, Dodgers, for giving me my Dad with all your strength and spirit this season. It may not have been the World Series, but it meant the World to me.

Sincerely,

Anne

And now enjoy, “Cookies with Peanut Butter and Cracker Jacks.”

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick of room temperature, unsalted butter

1 ½ cups of creamy peanut butter (like Skippy or Jif, although I use the generic, cheaper Safeway brand – still just as good.)

1 cup granulated white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

½ cup chopped lightly salted, dry roasted peanuts

¾ cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup Cracker Jacks

Preheat oven to 350°

1^st) Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

2^nd) Using your BFF (a.k.a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer), beat together butter and peanut butter until well blended. Add sugars one at a time until incorporated and light and fluffy. While still beating, add vanilla, and each egg “one at the time” (to quote Ms. Deen).

3^rd) Once above is blended, gradually mix in dry ingredients.

4^th) Gently mix together (I use my hand) peanuts, chocolate chips and Cracker Jack in a small bowl so they can all chill and get friendly together.

5^th) Drop rounded dough onto ungreased cookie sheets (I actually spray my sheets with a non-stick baking spray, like Pam but for baking, it just gives your cookie a nicer, firmer bottom. Quite the opposite of what these cookies will do for you in return if you eat too many of them.) I also use a medium sized ice cream scoop for the dropping.

6^th) Press each ball down with the back of a spatula just to flatten them a bit, they should be about a half-inch in thickness.

7^th) (I’m realizing more and more how demanding these guys are!!! Stick with me…) using your thumb press a reeeeally shallow well into the middle of each cookie.

8^th) NOW you can stick them into the oven for about five and a half minutes.

“WAIT!” You’re wondering, “what happened to the Peanuts and Cracker Jacks and Chocolate?!” Just like an Ethier walk-off home run in the 9^th inning… here they come in the 9^th step!

9^th) REMOVE cookies from oven (they are half-way through their baking process) and acting quickly, drop a little handful of the happy Cracker Jack mixture into each well. (it helps to let the chips sort of land first, then place about 2 or 3 popcorns on top).

10^th) Now, stick ‘em back in the oven to finish baking, another five and a half minutes or until the edges of the cookie look lightly browned.

11^th) Remove from oven, let cool on sheets about one and half minutes before transferring to wire wrack to cool completely. The caramel on the popcorn should have melted just enough to bond it to the cookie.