TWD: Chockablock Cookies

I know this happens to everyone who has baked along with TWD for any length of time. You get to the recipe of the week. You think "I would never in a zillion years make this on my own." Then you read the recipe more closely and think "there is no possible way that (x flavor plus y flavor plus z flavor) can be good together." Followed by "I will half the recipe and give these to A, and explain that I only made these for my baking club and would not have picked this recipe on my own, and then thank A for being such a good sport and eating them for me."

And then you taste the recipe and are amazed at how good it is, and equally amazed that you doubted Dorie for even a second, because you should really know better by now. Such was the case with this week's TWD pick, Chockablock Cookies, chosen by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet (I can tell I'd like Mary just from her blog name!). The ingredient list for these cookies? Molasses, chocolate chips, oats, coconut, dried fruit. Even though I'm no longer a committed coconut hater, I was one for too long to ever feel genuine happiness when I see it on the ingredient list in a recipe. Same thing with molasses - I like, even love, several recipes I've made with molasses as a prominent ingredient, but I still can't feel the enthusiasm when it's time to bake with it. Chocolate chips are fine and dried fruit is fine, but not together. All in all, there just seemed to be way too much going on in these cookies for me to possibly like them.



I made them last Monday afternoon, before my photography class on Monday night [IMPORTANT NOTE: please do not expect my food pictures to improve just because I am taking a photography class. While I feel like my pictures of my children have indeed gotten a little better, food photography continues to stump me. You would think that a cookie would be easier to photograph than a two year old because the cookie doesn't run away from you, but you'd be wrong. To the many talented food photographers out there -- I bow to you].

Anyway, so I made these to bring to my photography class, the one group of people in my life on whom I had not yet tried to pawn off baked goods. Actually, that's not completely true, given that Heather, Amanda and I make up a full 1/3d of the class, and I've definitely pawned off baked goods on Heather and Amanda before. The class seemed to genuinely love these cookies (and seemed to be genuinely shocked that I baked cookies to share with the class. If only they knew! If they are not careful, I may collect their home addresses and start delivering baked goods to them weekly.)

When I was in law school, my then boyfriend (now husband) and I would sit in the back row of class and do the crossword puzzle. I've often wondered how today's law students manage to get through Corporations. It must be so much easier for the kids today, in the days of wireless internet and iPhones, than it was back in my day, when we had to hike uphill to class in the snow at 7 a.m. and rely on nothing but a tall cup of day-old coffee and the Cavalier Daily crossword puzzle to keep us awake. I got a taste of the life of the modern student while sitting in photography class last week, as the teacher was up in the front of the classroom explaining that "There are just three certainties in life. Death. Taxes. And an 18% gray image tone from a normally exposed simple subject."

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To: Cathy and Heather
From: Amanda
Subject: Do y'all think

He looks like Albert Einstein tonight?

Sent from my iPhone

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To: Amanda and Heather
From: Cathy
Subject: Re: Do y'all think

OMG yes. Totally thought that last week too. It's uncanny.

Sent from my iPhone

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But the most gratifying electronic note I got passed during class on Monday was from Heather, who has almost two year old triplets and is pregnant with her fourth child, Penelope, due this summer. Heather sent me this message shortly after eating a chockablock cookie:

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To: Cathy
From: Heather
Subject: Penelope likes the cookies

Sent from my iPhone

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If these cookies are good enough for Penelope, they are good enough for me. I did not expect to enjoy these, but I loved them. If you would have told me two years ago that I would make, and savor, a molasses coconut oat chocolate raisin cookie, I would have thought you'd been smoking the coconut. I officially no longer trust my own judgment about whether a recipe is worth making or not.

Thanks for the excellent pick, Mary!