Peace Baker

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Let it be told throughout the land that I have achieved, yea verily, all by my little old lonesome, just this very afternoon in fact, a little something I like to call: World Peace! Not that I’m one to brag or anything… (Well actually they’re called World Peace Cookies. But there’s no need to quibble about semantics at a time like this. Don’t you agree?)

Okay, I know you are thinking, “Cookies? Whoop de diddly doo…” But you have not been listening to Dan sing their praises for the last two years. You were not there when his mom brought the book containing this very recipe to the beach in May. Pandora like, you did not taking a quick peek inside and find yourself instantly and hopelessly enthralled. But I did… hence the excitement.

The cookies in question are intensely chocolate on chocolate, slice-and-bake, sandy textured, slightly salty members of the “sablé” family. More importantly, they turned out on my very first try! (Do not be fooled by their rather humble appearance. They are delumptious I promise you.)

The book in question is: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan—co-author of Baking with Julia (as in Julia Child!). And what it contains is a comprehensive offering of Greenspan’s favorite tried and true recipes, everything from biscuits to fancy party cakes. These are not fantastical creations of a bored pastry chef, trying to come up with some never before seen confection. Oh, no. Fear not intrepid baker! These are Greenspan’s “All-American, All Delicious Apple Pie” and “Real Butterscotch Pudding” and “My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.” Familiar, simple things that you really want to make anyway. Not only that, but Greenspan lovingly describes them all in such a delightful way that with each new recipe you feel you must a) call in sick immediately and b) spend all day baking so you can try This one without delay. Then you make the mistake of turning the page and… Better call in sick for the whole Week.

Just as all little girls have to go through their romantic horse stage as a precursor to real romance with the opposite sex, so too perhaps every young woman at some time or another must fall in love with a cookbook in preparation for more serious homemaking down the line. If so, this is mine. Just holding the book for the first time gave me the feeling that all I needed was my own copy and I could be an initiate of that mysterious adult fraternity of people who can actually put butter and flour and sugar and eggs together and come up with something delectable and not remotely hockey puckish. Greenspan makes it all seem so very possible. Her book promises that even I can have a chance at, maybe not domestic goddessness, but at least the ability to create something warm and comforting and sweet to enjoy and share and be proud of in the kitchen.

I don’t think it’s any great mystery why I am attracted to the notion of comfort baking at a time when the cars are both headed back to the shop yet again and neither Dan nor I are making much money. When the dream of a new home seems to be slipping farther away rather than coming closer and it seems that our temporary situation is most likely going to be our Permanent situation. Or when I’ve finally given up hope of figuring out what to do with all the boxes or trying to make the place a bit less of a jumble and am just trying to live with the mess as best I can.

When I was a very little child of three we moved from the only home I had ever known in Chicago to a new church and parsonage in Rockford. There was a lot of drama around the move and, according to my parents, I dealt with it all by wanting to hear the same story every single night until we were safely ensconced in the new house. It was called A Home for Tandy, about a little elf who could not find a place to stay for the winter and was bounced about until his woodland friends made him a home of his very own.

I think I shall get through the uncertain days ahead by returning again and again not to A Home for Tandy, which is out of print in any case, but to Baking: From My Home to Yours. There are so many things I can’t fix about our situation, so many luxuries I can’t afford. But, with Greenspan’s help, yummy baked goods I think I can manage.